The $53,000 Connection: The High Cost of High-Speed Internet for Everyone
wsj.com
The $53,000 Connection: The High Cost of High-Speed Internet for Everyone::Officials doling out billions of dollars for broadband in rural America are struggling to decide when a new hookup costs too much
This just feels like a repeat of Rural Electrification: yeah it's expensive and not immediately profitable, but we're at the point where it's necessary to be a part of modern society.
And just like then. The feds should require every home to have a fiber line installed. Don't even give them money to do it. Just tell them they need to get it done themselves, or the government will do it without them.
Don't even give them [more ]money[, again,] to do it.
Agree in the ideal, but in practice fiber is often still unavailable in suburban areas and even urban ones too, in the US.
I'm no expert, but it seems much more efficient to prioritize those areas over rural ones.
Yep.
And allowing it to concentrate in areas centralizes wealth in those areas.
If you live in an area where your only internet option is satellite, your net worth is probably low, or you're retired.
Doesn't need to be this way.
I know a lot of people that have been in that situation that are younger and certainly not poor. Fiber is slowly creeping out there.
In 2023, broadband internet should seen as a utility like water and electricity. Build it.
https://archive.ph/J8xh6 No paywall
Even if that is an accurate number, there are only ~56 million Americans living in census defined rural areas. With some actual planning we should be able to get missing backbones from our urban areas (which should be getting far more funding). Wireless is also a gamechanger, with microwave, 5g (and nextgen 6g), and Starlink, and that can really reduce this cost since not everyone needs fiber. If we can incorporate requirements for new backbone lines with any greenfield rail or highway projects we can get wireless coverage out faster and cheaper.
And that's why Starlink has a huge potential market... lazy and greedy ISPs. You would think launching thousands of satellites into space would be more expensive than laying down some cables on land, but...