Chair proposes 100Mbps national standard and an evaluation of broadband prices.

FCC chair: Speed standard of 25Mbps down, 3Mbps up isn’t good enough anymore::Chair proposes 100Mbps national standard and an evaluation of broadband prices.

  • Toribor@corndog.socialEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    People in rural areas can have problems getting service because there has not been enough government subsidy to deploy infrastructure.

    Technically the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allocated a ton of money for fiber infrastructure, but telecom providers rolled it out in dense urban areas with a lot of customers, bought each other up and then pocketed the extra cash.

    Fiber to the premise in rural areas is insanely expensive but I see it like a modern version of the post office. If you want to be able to write a letter to anyone and have it be delivered you need to set the price so that rural customers aren’t paying costs that are orders of magnitude higher.

    • rm_dash_r_star@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Let me fix that;

      People in rural areas can have problems getting service because there has not been enough proper government subsidy to deploy infrastructure.

      I mean if the feds just toss money at these providers they’ll use it how they please. It should be a matter of government doing what it is necessary to deploy service as widely as possible. Without oversight it’s just giving them free money.

      I suppose now that the cell network is able to provide “hotspot” service that could be an out for subsidy, but it sure won’t make a 100Mbps standard. On 4G the best my phone can do is 50Mbps when close to a tower, less when signal strength is lower. You can get much higher speeds on 5G, but it’s even more affected by tower distance. You’re not going to get that in a rural area, same infrastructure problem.