Private industry handling a public utility is never a good idea, see: Texas power grid
internet should be treated like water and power and handled by the city.
The biggest problem in Texas is greedy politicians (Republicans) making it worse.
The government should never be in control of a means of free speech. You know who has Government-controlled internet?
Russia Iran China N Korea India Some EU countries Turkey Etc.
Which eu countries ?
Now I’m curious too
Right because having private companies in control of a means of free speech has always worked out fine
Vermont has several towns with as little as a thousand people that have fiber internet thanks to municipal cooperatives like ECFiber. Much of the state is a connectivity wasteland but it’s really cool to see some towns working together to sort it out.
Aren’t local ISPs essentially banned in a lot of places due to lobbying from the big players? Less abandoned and more actively stomping on its throat.
It was like that in all of Washington State from 1999 until it was repealed in 2021.
Where I live in Canada everyone thinks they need gigabit internet. My internet sales person was so sure that I needed at least 1 gig internet because I work from home and have a couple of people using YouTube at the same time . But I haven’t had a single issue with my 500 megabit internet . That was the lowest I could go , probably would of been fine with 200 - 300 .
Removed by mod
Because usable cellular Internet is relatively new, the cable/dsl/etc providers should have upgraded their systems literally decades ago and didn’t, funneling federal money intended for that purpose to CEO bonuses instead.
cable/dsl/etc providers should have upgraded their systems literally decades ago and didn’t, funneling federal money intended for that purpose to CEO bonuses instead.
So why look to them now like the other person was downvoted for asking? Nothing has changed and they still have no reason to run cable out to these communities.
The short answer is lobbyists.
If they are so rural ISPs won’t take them, why would a cell company deploy 5G in a super sparse area?
For example TMO and VZW will only hand out home cell modem if you live within half mile of a major interstate. If not out of luck aside from Starlink.
Well I tried it for home Internet and it was mostly fine but was a little less reliable than wired. I think reliability is important.
Removed by mod
Yeah, same
And not a mention about Starlink? To me it seems like the obvious solution compared to digging cables to an individual rural homes. Personally I use cellural but not everyone lives within the coverage of these towers. Satellite internet on the other hand is global.
I tried Starlink, had high hopes, but unfortunately due to living sort of in a valley and being surrounded by numerous 100+ foot trees, service would cut out every 10-15 minutes. Wasn’t viable for video conferencing or large downloads.
Cellular was OK, but the speeds could vary wildly and really only peaked at maybe 100/30.
Ultimately, I ended up paying a local provider to bury a line directly to my house for me (well into the 5 figure cost). Worth it.
