maartena
Stacked.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Internet is a Utility, broadband is not.
I would want to state that Internet Access has become a utility. Even on dial-up you can do the most needed things, which is surf to websites to get certain information, and to communicate with others via e-mail, which is what most people with access do on a daily basis.
However, I do feel that 56k (and in most cases not even 30k) is really becoming out of date, and I think we have the technology to give the entire country access through regular phonelines regardless of the distance to the CO at a speed of 128 kbit/s up and down, while not taking up a phone line.
Not to mention, a 128 kbit/s service to the entire nation will also help things like silent alarms, medical alert buttons for the elderly and handicapped, access to services like church radio for those who cannot travel to the local church any longer (64 kbps will make a nice radio station), public service announcements, and even farmers who can check their stables to see if their cows have been milked by the machines already while being on vacation in florida.
There is so much potential for an connected America. And I think "smallband" connections like 128 kbps should be available to everyone for about $15 a month, and broadband as a luxury and whereever technological possible.
I believe ISDN/IDSL type networks aren't that expensive to deploy, and I think they can reach 95% of houses, including farms, with that technology. The rest can get access by satellite. Which, of course, is already available but notoriously unreliable and expensive.
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The Republican Party is a party of BAD ideas. The Democratic Party is a party of NO ideas. Every now and then a Republican stands up in congress and says: "I got a really BAD idea!", to which a Democrat reponds with: "And I can make it shittier!" |
