said by KUppiano :

Whether you like dial-up or satellite or not, rural internetification costs lots of money. In the city, you can run a few miles of FIOS or even get DSL to run down existing copper pairs, and get hundreds of customers.

In the sticks, you run several miles of FIOS (forget DSL) and you get maybe four or five customers. No provider in their right mind would invest in such a thing. It is very unlikely that they would break even.

It was the same with rural electrification and telephone service. It will happen eventually, but it will take longer.

said by Tzale :

The truth is that even Canada where 90% of the population is within 100 miles of the U.S. border only gets 7mbps average.
You can't compare us to other countries

said by JammerMan79 :

I've asked people before to give me a few cities in BC or AB and I'll check to see if adsl services are available there... Unless it's really, really rural chances are they can get it.

said by Oleg :

This Is not correct Average U.S. Broadband Speed Is around 3-6 mbits

said by Siryak :

Yes, but most people don't think it should ever happen. My same argument above would have applied to electricity and telephone if they wouldn't have made a bill making it mandatory. We would not have any people to raise our food if they didn't force the electric and telephone companies to provide for us, because everyone would have moved to the city. Electricity and telephone is not required to get by, but who in their right mind would go without it. Internet is becoming the same way.

said by damox :

And just how did you figure that? Do you have a source, or is that you guess?

said by sitrix :

And there is GigE available in HK for under $100 last I recall, as there are similar packages available in some parts of Japan, so what's your point? Fact is that those services aren't available everywhere in Asia as Verizon FiOS isn't available everywhere in US. In the end, their average speed is a lot higher then ours any way you look at it.

said by tamovies :

Your wrong about DSL2! I can get it in Maine!
»www.gwi.net/residential/highspeed/index.html
Don't worry, FairPoint will gladly maintain a 20 Mbps copper loop for CLECs. Heck @ $55 a month there is plenty of money to pay the coolies FairPoint will bring in.

said by mike23ss :

oi! you think you've got it bad in the usa!!!..haha.. we don't get anywhere near that average here.. but i wonder what the hell you need a 61mb connection for anyway!!??

said by KUppiano :

Wages and prices are nature's communication channel telling people the true value of goods and services. Currently, it is simply too expensive to wire the countryside with these high-tech amenities.

Many people would live in the country because they prefer the lifestyle. Without high-speed internet. Or phones. Or even electricity for that matter. Face it, we humans spent the vast bulk of our time on this planet without those things, and we flourished quite handily, thank you very much.

Even if farmers started moving to the city, it wouldn't happen overnight. The gradual reduction of the food supply would cause a gradual increase in farm prices, and we would reach a new equilibrium. Maybe farmers would make enough money that they could afford to bring high-speed internet to the country for the true cost of doing it, instead of the government forcing the city folk to pay for it whether anyone really wanted it enough to pay for it of their own free will.

said by Siryak :

So you would rather let food prices rise than pay a small tax on your internet bill? To each his own I guess.