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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA Reviews:
 ·SONIC.NET
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Not buying it How much did it cost them to build this "new home just for broadband"?
For the amount they spent, I'm sure they could have had T-1 service in their old house for many years.
Instead, they want you and me to subsidize their access, because they choose to live in the middle of nowhere.
Only in the minds of the AP could this be considered newsworthy. | |
|   knightmbEverybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN | Re: Not buying it said by elray:How much did it cost them to build this "new home just for broadband"? For the amount they spent, I'm sure they could have had T-1 service in their old house for many years. Instead, they want you and me to subsidize their access, because they choose to live in the middle of nowhere. Only in the minds of the AP could this be considered newsworthy. I was about to say the same thing, for the many hundred thousand they spent, that would have gotten them satellite or cell broadband (or at least a cell tower close enough to get broadband)
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| Re: Not buying it There are many places that do not get cell service.
Really, in rural areas, only near MAIN roads is there cell service.
So when you drive through the rural areas there may be service, but go really rural, like around here, and you will see there is no cell service in many areas... let alone any 3G or anything even close.
Also, even sat services can be difficult due to the terrain... hills block the southern sky in many areas too.
I think it has become a utility.
I have been without a job (I have been doing on side consulting since) since January! January!!!!
Sorry, with that said that forces us to consider to cut back on things.
Now so far we have all of the 4 but here is what would go and in what order...
1st. Cell services.
2nd. Television services.
3rd. Telephone AND broadband. I cannot afford the local telco $50 a month (yes, I know, it is only $12 a month for the cheap package but somehow my bill was $50 a month, hmm) so I can only afford VOIP. So broadband goes, telephone goes with it.
It is critical for me to have broadband.
People around here get creative, use wireless ISPs and some have to resort to ISDN.
Satellite is NOT broadband service.
So yes, the government did it with phone, time to do it with broadband services. Sorry "city folk" but everyone needs broadband.
BTW. Even people that live in non-rural areas do not have broadband so do not start some "you chose where you live" crap.
Also, let me cover all the basis here.
* Not all people that live in rural areas are poor.
* Broadband increases property value, needed right now.
* Kids actually can use the internet for education!
* Broadband is used by many for work, and sometimes required by the employer.
* Broadband is used by many devices these days, example DVRs
The government steps in when there is a service so needed yet no one can really profit from it. Like roads, how is any body going to make money off that, so the government does it.
Broadband in rural areas drains money, right now. But just like telephone service broadband is the service just like telephone was 50 years ago. | |
| |  furloniumComputer Over? Virus equals Very Yes?
join:2002-05-08
Bethlehem, PA | said by knightmb:said by elray:How much did it cost them to build this "new home just for broadband"? For the amount they spent, I'm sure they could have had T-1 service in their old house for many years. Instead, they want you and me to subsidize their access, because they choose to live in the middle of nowhere. Only in the minds of the AP could this be considered newsworthy. I was about to say the same thing, for the many hundred thousand they spent, that would have gotten them satellite or cell broadband (or at least a cell tower close enough to get broadband) Sure, probably. I've seen full T-1s around here for as low as $300/month. But I sure as hell would rather put that $300/month towards my mortgage payment, and have an internet connection that doesn't suck. (1.5mbps symm.?  )
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 alchav
join:2002-05-17
Palm Desert, CA | said by elray:How much did it cost them to build this "new home just for broadband"? For the amount they spent, I'm sure they could have had T-1 service in their old house for many years. Instead, they want you and me to subsidize their access, because they choose to live in the middle of nowhere. Elray you are correct, most people don't have a clue when it comes to Broadband. The Community I live in now didn't have Broadband 9 years ago, but that didn't stop me from moving in and getting ready for it. When I lived up in the Silicon Valley, where we invented Broadband, I thought everyone had it. I had them run Ethernet throughout my new house and was ready for Verizon DSL, but then I found out that Verizon didn't offer it here in The Desert and had no plans to bring it in. So our Community just formed a group to research Broadband, and within a year we had it. So if a Community or City really wants Broadband, they just need to get together and it will happen. | |
| | | A T1 is only 1.5 Mbps symmetrical. That was really only a "fast" speed 10 - 15 years ago.
Do you also agree that phone service should only be accessible to people who live within larger population centers?
How about electricity? | |
| | elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Not buying it said by SterlingJ85:A T1 is only 1.5 Mbps symmetrical. That was really only a "fast" speed 10 - 15 years ago. Do you also agree that phone service should only be accessible to people who live within larger population centers? How about electricity? If you move to the middle of nowhere, you don't get water, you don't get electricity, you don't get a sewer hookup, you don't get piped gas, and you don't get free fire roads.
If there IS a utility pole within sight of your lot, YOU get to pay the freight for installing your own poles to extend it - in many cases, that means folks install off-grid solar systems, because the cost of running electric wires is higher. Likewise for telephone service.
You get to drill your own well. Not cheap. If the well is dry, you TRUCK IN water at $.10/gallon.
You get to build and maintain a septic system.
You get to grade and/or pave your own fire access roads, or the county won't let you build at all.
These are all costs that one bears when you build in the stix. In exchange, you get lots of open space, quiet nights, no street lights, and whatever spiritual benefit you derive from being isolated.
So yes, utilities that have high overhead and startup costs may NOT be available to everyone who chooses to live afar from "a population center". That includes electricity. How dense the population must be, before certain utilities are established, is a local concern, not a national one.
If you do have telephone service, you can get IDSL. If not, you can get satellite. That's fast enough for any _necessary_ "broadband" service. VOIP is not a necessity.
I've paid premium rates for phone service most of my adult life, based on the neighborhoods I choose to live in. I don't like it, but I've never expected my fellow citizens to pay my bill.
I just don't see the case for the taxpayers to subsidize rural "broadband" hookups, especially when there are adequate options already available. | |
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