West Virginia Wants Rural Wireless > Obama wants more rural broadband thru USF fees

reply to Zorack

Re: Obama wants more rural broadband thru USF fees

pretty easy to say that when people already have what they want...
when you have corporations only interested in the bottom line and not seeing the right roi on their deployment, you have essentially shafted a group of people. you say that people should "build their own", but what dictates that this group of people knows how to deploy large scale wisp or cellular networks? above and beyond that - logistics and cost of entry is enormous and prohibitive almost everybody except for those that have the outright capital at hand (namely corporations or the government).

amazing that all of the neo-cons on here rant and rave about government involvement with an "i've got mine, i don't care about yours" attitude. nobody wants socialism because we will "pay too much in taxes and not get anything in return", but who is to say that if we go strictly capitalist (with *no* government involvement) that a corporation that is looking strictly at the bottom line will help the consumers any more?

q.

reply to pnh102

reply to pnh102
And if people want education they should pay for it as I told Texan. Why bother with Tax Payer Subsidized anything.. O crap, 700 billion is funding Big Business soon. I guess that one kind of went out the window. Bush Mismanagement = Tax Payer Nightmare. Back to rant.

- You can read and write. I guess you got through k-12 education somewhere in the U.S? Let me guess, your PARENTS did not pay for the teacher's salaries, school operational costs, and text books. If you went to a public school, ALL tax payers SOCIALIZED your education. Meaning, even if your school had 1000 students, 30 teachers, and cost 5 million to operate. It was NOT just those parents of the 1000 kids paying the bill. It was the ENTIRE COMMUNITY, State, Federal Government doing so. IE, Unless you want a system where those 1000 parents split the "5 million bill here", then you are socialized. Otherwise, tax payers from your city, state, and all over the U.S. have paid taxes that funded your education.

Will you be cutting them a BIG FAT check to return that money?

How about roads. You like driving on them, I imagine. Well Socialized again. I mean, I don't see you giving Tax payers a SECOND HUGE check. Roads were socialized. Not only was my money used, yours and everyone elses got put into the pot. That's the definition of SOCIALISM. Therefore, please BUILD YOUR OWN ROADS. Socialism is bad. Otherwise, please reimburse the other tax payers or pay a fee every time you drive on a road. Sound good?

Second check in the mail will be sent when?

Last, how about Medical Care. You enjoy nice drugs when you get sick. Please don't. Tax Payer money SOCIALIZED the research that went into finding them. After all Universities, Hospitals, etc all receive tax payer money. Will you be paying the FULL COST of the drug you take (not the insurance rate) the Billion plus to find that drug? I fathom not. Strange, but you enjoy using medicine.

So where will you get the 3rd check from. You MUST be broke from the 0s found in checks 1 and 2.

Long story short, people should do things on their own. However, government is also needed when other parties fail.

reply to tubbynet
Who said anything about socialism? There's nothing stopping private citizens from making their own private investments and building their own network privately.
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"At the moment of conception."

reply to jc100
Yawn. So again, why should taxpayers pay for someone's luxury service?

Education is actually an important service provided by state and local government. Considering that many public schools suck, perhaps government should fix that before they screw the pooch on a luxury wireless or broadband service?

As for roads, these are all paid by user fees. All of the taxes, tolls and other fees used to finance roads are voluntary. If someone doesn't drive they do not pay for them.

As for socialized medicine, I will believe this is a better system once people from the USA start going in droves to Canada, Europe or Cuba for the "free" healthcare offered there. Hopefully, they won't come back.
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"At the moment of conception."

reply to Duramax08
But again, why should private investors finance their own network? Most cell phone companies and ISPs paid for their infrastructure using subscriber fees, why can't the people of WV do the same?
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"At the moment of conception."

reply to pnh102

reply to pnh102

reply to pnh102
yeah, except the pesky spectrum that you cant get your hands on due to the incumbents owning it all, and the lobbying so that joe-average-guy can't compete with them.

reply to pnh102
I dont see how being able to have a choice of service provider (landline vs wireless) is a luxury. There's 200 million people that seem to have that choice, and chose wireless. Why shouldn't people in more rural areas have that choice?

I dont know about roads in Maryland, but here in WV, the roads are paid for from general taxes. If you have a job, you're paying for the roads. Yes, there are a couple of toll booths on the turnpike, and our state capitol city of Charleston ILLEGALLY forces a user fee on anyone who works there, but for any road outside of Charleston and the turnpike, EVERYONE pays for regardless if they drive or not.

reply to pnh102
you answered your own question. They pay for their infrastructure using subscriber fees, but they're not doing that here. They're just reaping the profits.

I do know that the death star added 27 "cell sites" over the past couple years, but they still have the slowest, poorest coverage around here.

reply to pnh102
A) Education is Socialized. Cutting a Check or Refund back to tax payers for your education.

B) Everyone pays for roads. Everyone pays taxes. Wrong again bud. License Plates aren't the only thing that go to maintaining roads. All tax dollars are used to help out there. Socialized again. Whether or not you drive, you fund the roads that are built and construction to maintain. Writing another BIG CHECK?

C) Good, since you hate socialized medicine, DON'T get prescriptions. You can go to the doctor but not get the cure. After all, Tax payer money HELPED socialize the research on MANY drugs we see today. Good enough. You can have your diagnosis but not the method to fix!

reply to nnaarrnn
Poca Was not wired with cable for internet till 2002-2003. As least you can get DSL in Nitro.

reply to pnh102

reply to dsless
yeah, except this article is about cell coverage.

Yea, my verizon land line in Poca was terrible but the ATT service was pretty good. Until you when down the other side of the hill from the golf course.

reply to nnaarrnn
I think people are overlooking a major piece of information here. There are "cellular" carriers operating in these areas of WV. Those carriers do have the spectrum needed (obviously) to serve customers in that geographic area. Clearly, they dont want to spend the money to put up a new tower in a very rural area with at most a handful of (possible) subscribers. Instead of whining about wanting the government to do something about this, the rural folks should do something proactive about the issue. My suggestion would be that they find out how many people in the area actually want/need more coverage. Perhaps they could get a petition together, and assuming they get more than 10 people to sign it they can send it to the local "cellular" provider and ask THEM to add another tower.

Why is it that the knee jerk reaction many people on this site have to any business related situation is to whine to the government about it??
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If history teaches us anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly.
-Ronald Reagan-

reply to dsless
yeah, out that road, Sprint/Alltel/Verizon/Ntelos (CDMA) is the only service that works.

reply to pnh102