| Sad debate here We all complain about the level of partisanship in Congress but it ain't better on DSLreports. There seems to be only two possible reactions. It's either, "f... those communists bastards" or "let's copy them exactly". What about we think as to how this is relevant to us and what we could learn from it? Being flexible and learning from others is not something to be ashamed of.
Obviously, wiring all of the US is impractical, however, based on the numbers provided above, if 80% of 301M Americans live on 5.6% of the country, that's an average density of 1338 persons per square mile. While the numbers are probably off, the point is that for a good chunk of the US population, the density is fairly high and could lend itself to rewiring the communication infrastructure.
As for the government funding debate, I don't think it should be black and white. Nobody is against paying taxes to fund building roads around the country. One can make a reasonable argument that building fiber is infrastructure that benefits all of us, and open up new business opportunities. And regardless of who takes the financial risk, be it Verizon or uncle Sam, we will all pay for the costs of installing that fiber regardless. Or we could even a more moderate approach, and simply give subsidies to Verizon/ATT/Qwest to build the fiber in exchange for them to lease the fiber at a reasonable rate to other ISPs.
I guess that it's easier to hurl epiteths at each other rather than trying to come up with a reasonable pragmatic solution.
That being said, we all know what the real end result will be. We'll have a cozy duopoly between cable and the phone company, and we'll end up paying through the nose for internet access. |
