While the COVID-19 pandemic spurred significant progress in expanding rural home internet access, these gains are proving temporary as resources dwindle.
The majority of people in the USA live in these “rural” areas. Full on subdivisions get built with no Internet sometimes out in the rural parts of the USA. The ISPs that have monopolized internet access, don’t care about running new access because it cuts into their profits. It’s easier to just raise the prices on the existing lines, and keep pocketing the free subsidized money they get from the gov.
Fuck whoever is letting people build subdivisions in the middle of nowhere and fuck people who buy a house in the middle of nowhere with an expectation to have full access to services like you’re in a city.
Lastly, fuck ISP monopolies, let’s solve that problem first and break comcast et all up and roll back laws that block municipal internet services.
But one thing you said “running new access because it cuts into their profits” that’s sort of my point. These rural lines won’t pay for themselves, the only way they’ll be built is if a rich individual commissions it privately or if other people subsidize it. Satellite internet is the right solution for really rural areas. It isn’t worth it to build 30 miles of infrastructure for five homes - it isn’t even worth it for us to pave those roads. Rural communities are “cheap” because everyone else subsidizes them.
The majority of people in the USA live in these “rural” areas. Full on subdivisions get built with no Internet sometimes out in the rural parts of the USA. The ISPs that have monopolized internet access, don’t care about running new access because it cuts into their profits. It’s easier to just raise the prices on the existing lines, and keep pocketing the free subsidized money they get from the gov.
Fuck whoever is letting people build subdivisions in the middle of nowhere and fuck people who buy a house in the middle of nowhere with an expectation to have full access to services like you’re in a city.
Lastly, fuck ISP monopolies, let’s solve that problem first and break comcast et all up and roll back laws that block municipal internet services.
But one thing you said “running new access because it cuts into their profits” that’s sort of my point. These rural lines won’t pay for themselves, the only way they’ll be built is if a rich individual commissions it privately or if other people subsidize it. Satellite internet is the right solution for really rural areas. It isn’t worth it to build 30 miles of infrastructure for five homes - it isn’t even worth it for us to pave those roads. Rural communities are “cheap” because everyone else subsidizes them.