3 ms·
There have been several programs over the years - most recently you can look at the Biden's "Infrastructure bill" (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) which
by nemothekid 3y ago
There have been several programs over the years - most recently you can look at the Biden's "Infrastructure bill" (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) which $65B for broadband.
Older than 2020 has been:
1. Connect America Fund (https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf) which has been around 2011
2. Obama's stimulus package of 2009 which allocated $8B (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvest...)
I'm pulling these acts from this book: http://irregulators.org/bookofbrokenpromises/ http://irregulators.org/bookofbrokenpromises/
and cross referencing them with wikipedia or other sites. People have been really sore about since the breakup of Ma Bell in 1984. The fact that so much money was spent and America isn't covered in Fiber is a real tragedy.
- gruez 3y ago>1. Connect America Fund (https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf) which has been around 2011 The FCC website seems to suggest the funds were given in exchange for ISPs providing internet in an given internet. Did the ISPs not follow through? If so, is there more on this? >2. Obama's stimulus package of 2009 which allocated $8B (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvest...) The linked wikipedia page just lists a dollar amount with no accompanying detail, and google doesn't turn up much either, so it's unclear under what conditions the money was given out. >I'm pulling these acts from this book: http://irregulators.org/bookofbrokenpromises/ http://irregulators.org/bookofbrokenpromises/ I didn't feel like reading all 581 pages of the book, so I looked at the summary instead. Based on my quick skim, there's little in the way of details in terms of actual examples of government money being handed out with the expectation of it being used for broadband, and the ISPs not following through. There were however, many examples of ISPs failing to meet their broadband expansion plans, which is a slightly different claim.
- lukeschlather 3y agohttps://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/att-took-283-million-but-didnt-deploy-required-broadband-mississippi-says/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/att-took-283-mil... This is one fairly recent example. They didn't just get provided "money to use for broadband." They were expected to provide service within an area, and they didn't actually provide service to people they said they were capable of serving.