Why City Folks Must Fight For Rural Broadband - Comments Page 2

Vote in November! Take note of who controls the FCC and therefore who is favored in its decisions. Who is receiving the biggest bribe (campaign) donations from the big ISP's?

Bob Rankin, this is the best article you've ever written; it hits home on all points here in Royston, GA.! AT&T sends us solicitations all the time to sign up for 100mps guaranteed; but there aren't any fiber optic cables where we live; the most we ever see is maybe 3mps max. We've had DSL for twenty to twenty-five years; it's speed has gone down over time, not up!

There is a local company which started in the last couple of years which advertises providing fast internet service over the airwaves (not satellite service); this could never be a safe option, as anyone with savvy enough acumen and same high tech equipment will steal your information transmission's as it's broadcast.

I feel sure (as you've alluded to Bob Rankin) that AT&T has overstated their broadband service in this area as there are moderately sized businesses along the highways in the surrounding areas that must have high-speed internet to function properly. Working for change; and the high-speed providers (fiber optics) need to be held to the standards that the statutes dictate!! Thanks Again, Joe W.

One of the main problems with this issue is that people in cities and areas with high-speed simply cannot imagine that others live with internet speeds just above dial-up speeds (and I also know that most do not even remember how slow dial-up was!).
I live with the fast speed of 6 mbp, on a good day. This is provided by the ONLY provider in my area. Forget about the common pastime of "binge-watching" anything.
Yes, I could get satellite service, but that is even slower in my area--and more expensive. Some of my neighbors do not have ANY internet options.
So Bob is correct that this issue is truly separating the "haves and have NOTs" into distinct quality of life disparity.

This Axios article says the divide between rural and city will be even greater with 5G:

https://www.axios.com/5g-digital-divide-19b70d34-4978-44df-a1cb-ae9222d113ef.html

Good Article! If Trump and the Republicans want to make America great again they should do what Roosevelt and the Dems did by instituting The Rural Electrification Act of 1936.This program provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States. Yes I was alive back then and no I am not a Democrat.

I live in Australia Sadly the situation here is very similar.

Rural broad band is like rural electrification Who can argue that wiring for power in rural areas is or was a bad thing? Power is power, information is the new power to the people thing.

I take exception to your explanation of why prices go up in urban areas. It is actually more expensive to bring utilities to rural areas b/c there aren't enough people to cover the cost. In cities, it's cheaper (per person) to bring services to one small area with concentrated demand. And, people tend to make more money in the city - so more can be charged. Why take broadband to the few when you can make a ton on the many that cluster in urban areas? And, therein lies the problem.

You hit the nail on the head when you say, "broadband is a decisive resource in one's ability to create a bearable life". What you are describing is A BASIC UTILITY! Like electricity and running water. Which is why we all should be fighting for NET NEUTRALITY, not just the provision of broadband.

As another poster has said, pay attention to Mr Pai and his FCC. By changing the rules to allow provision of this service to be based on profit, only, you deprive a great many of basic internet access, which, as you have so eloquently described, means they are relegated to an inferior quality of life. Don't we want everyone to have access so they can be well educated, well employed contributors to this country? Shouldn't we all be willing to pay our fair share to insure everyone has access? Why should big corporations get all the bandwidth? How does that benefit us, in the end?