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There’s a huge push at the US federal level to get fiber to the home in rural areas. 10s of billions in funding. A lot of times it’s run by the electric compan
by maliker 6y ago
There’s a huge push at the US federal level to get fiber to the home in rural areas. 10s of billions in funding.
A lot of times it’s run by the electric companies (coops). They already have the right of way, pole access, and customer relationships.
There are dozens of utilities pursuing this, haven’t heard of any working with 5g.
There was a recent executive order restricting foreign equipment on the grid, and I suspect that’s going to make things harder for 5g.
I’m not saying 5g can’t be used in rural applications, just that it looks like fiber has a big head start. Now that there’s also more LEO satellite internet companies coming in with decent latency and bandwidth, that’s going to be another competitor to 5g in rural areas.
- deelowe 6y agoMost coops aren't able to make use of the funding due to competing regulations getting in the way. My local coop has been sending us updates every few months on the situation and they're just getting ignored. Their recent emails have taken a more cynical tone that the government was doing more than playing lip service.
- bleepblorp 6y agoIs there much evidence that this funding will do anything more than previous rounds of rural internet funding? Previous funding has simply disappeared into the pockets of incumbent players without any hardware being built. Technology isn't a solution for graft.