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I'm totally onboard with universal service fees if the companies finally start being regulated like utilities and be mandated to provide service to everyone.
by wing-_-nuts 3y ago
I'm totally onboard with universal service fees if the companies finally start being regulated like utilities and be mandated to provide service to everyone. They want the benefit without the responsibilities.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoUniversal Service Fees should go into a fund for muni and coop internet providers. No for profit subsides. Or pay out of the general fund as Nifty3929 mentions. This is foundational developed world infra, and should be treated like roads, schools, libraries, etc. Once the fiber is in the ground (raceway, conduit, direct burial, whatever), it is citizen fiber forever.
- wing-_-nuts 3y agoYes! I am all about having muni fiber. It's one of my major 'wants' for my next relocation.
- anuptalwalkar 3y agoUniversal fees for cause always start with specific cause, and then after a few years some bill sneaks in to repurpose those funds to something else.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoI would agree democracy and governance is work, the schlep is never ending. Government is accountable to its citizens, citizens are accountable to keep government on task and honest. Government is us, hence the inherit nature of this all being a system held together in tension. There is always hope, with my apologies to Banksy.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- karma_pharmer 3y agoExactly. Dark fiber in the Right-of-Way should be a regulated monopoly prohibited from vertically integrating with the rest of the value chain. Just like water pipes, sewer pipes, and power lines. Electrical utilities aren't allowed to venture into the data-center business, for example. Or the aluminum-smelting business. Why is this so difficult?
- dehrmann 3y ago> provide service to everyone They can't or don't want to. Too much of the US is too rural for cost-effective near-universal wire/fiber broadband access.