Technology

Yet more spending on infrastructure that was already paid for decades ago and will likely never get lit up.

Edit: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394 for those who don't remember or are too young to remember. We've literally already paid this over 10 fold... They've weaseled their way out of all the requirements every time. This is why any "infrastructure" bill pertaining to internet (at the very least) is a joke. This is just the government writing a handout check to ISPs.

How much do you want to bet that most of this money will be squandered by the local monopolies that exist right now? They will take the money and show nothing for it. Just like the last time they received money from the federal government to improve rural internet access.

I have read a few articles on this. Does anyone know what they mean by “universal”? That brings to mind the thought of the government offering a public option for ISPs, which I just don’t see Biden doing (I would love to be proven wrong).

Or is this money just going to be given to corporate ISPs who will probably find a way to continue to jack up the price for the consumer all while being subsidized on their expansion?

If the later is the case, are we just throwing around the word “universal” now?

Honestly, essentials shouldn't be (majority) privately owned. This includes water, sewage, electricity, most roads, and internet.

To me, as the cables in the US are privately owned it seems that unless you "luck out", you essentially have 1 realistic option for internet. I've been told that it's fairly regional, so apparently it's not so bad in the major cities.

In ~99% of NZ the internet (fibre) cables are either crown-company owned (essentially state), or joint owned by private/public. This essentially makes EVERY ISP buy their bandwidth off the cable owner. There is no ISP monopoly (only a physical cable monopoly), and just like power companies, changing ISP's is trivial. I think a lot of europe does something similar too, and apparently some cities in the US do this too.

I'll believe it when I see it. They have been promising high speed internet for over a decade here, yet my only options are still 7 meg DSL and satellite.

I'm in one of the rare places with municipal fiber and it's fuckin awesome. Just as reliable as anyone else is, super affordable. And if there's an issue I can call and talk to a real human who wants to help. It's amazing and I hope more places get it.

Sounds like the states will get the money, then their lawmakers will be bought by the same telecom companies who have already taken billions of taxpayer dollars and NOT used it for expanding broadband.

If they were serious this would focus on municipal broadband, not more big ISP handouts.

How many times are we going to try this?

Again?