said by rradina:I agree and the folks who live in those areas should buy into those coops. If running fiber to everyone's home isn't feasible because there will never be a return on investment, then do WISPs. We have a lot of technology that did not exist when rural telephone and electricity projects were implemented. Let's be smart this time.
My parents live on a farm with no chance of cable TV or DSL. They have satellite TV and a wireless ISP for HSI. It costs them $50/month for up to 500Kbps down and 128Kbps up but whenever I visit, my iPhone connects to their WiFi router and seems to work fine. Can I watch hi-res YouTube videos? No but it beats the heck out of AT&T's EDGE service in the area!
Actually even during rural electrification people were experimenting with wind farms. The point is this swiss-cheese method of upgrading the US results in gross inefficiencies. Unless we upgrade everyone at the same time we won't reap the benefits of next-gen communications technology.
