US still hasn't gotten its act together on broadband deployment

The Federal Communications Commission is sticking to its guns when it comes to the state of high speed Internet deployment in the United States. Despite last year's protests from the cable industry, the agency's Seventh Broadband Progress Report reiterates the conclusion of its sixth survey. As many as 26 million Americans dwell in cities, towns, and counties in which there is no broadband capable of delivering video, graphics, data, and high quality voice services at affordable prices.

Many Americans live in rural areas "where there is no business case to offer broadband," the survey notes, "and where existing public efforts to extend broadband are unlikely to reach; they have no immediate prospect of being served, despite the growing costs of digital exclusion."

And about one-third of consumers do not subscribe to any kind of broadband service, the report concludes. Subscribership runs at around 67 percent of Americans, as opposed to adoption rates of over 90 percent in South Korea and Singapore. US consumers say they can't afford it, they don't know how to use it, or they just can't see the point in going online. Four out of five schools funded by the FCC's E-Rate computer/network equipment subsidy program say their connections are inadequate.

"These data provide further indication that broadband is not being reasonably and timely deployed and is not available to all Americans," the report concludes.

The "reasonable and timely" phrase is key to this document. It is called a "Section 706" report because that portion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the FCC to annually determine whether broadband "is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/us-still-hasnt-gotten-its-act-together-on-broadband-deployment.ars

WOW, the unreccing crew is out in force today!

We just dropped hughesnet, the overpriced "broadband" service. A bird farts in the air 20 miles away and service is dropped and it has severe download limits.

We instead spent $400 on an external cellular boosting system to allow us to switch to a cellular internet. So far it's working slightly better than hughesnet at a lower cost. It will take 9 months to balance out the cost of the initial investment of the equipment that brought us enough signal strength to use the system though.

I recently ended up with a parabolic grid for the cellular reception. Hughes was hell. Cellular doesn't suck too badly. I had the boosting amp, and the grid was way nicer. And cheaper. You may have different circumstances, but I just wanted to pass that on in case it's of any help. Hang in there, I know how difficult it is.

This country has it's priorities all screwed up. Death incorporated, and still no broadband for us who live outside metropolitan areas.

So far it's working really well. We also dropped our home phone and upgraded our cells to unlimited talk giving us further savings. If power ever goes we'll have to run down the road to make a call though, that's a downfall.

The real kick in the ass.... they just built a new shopping center 7/10ths of a mile away, yet no DSL or cable on the table at this point for our area. I imagine the stores had a T1 line put in for service, which was another option we explored as well.

It would require the establishment of something along the lines of REA which got electric power and telephone service to rural areas. Cable companies seldom extend service outside city limits and telecoms have little or no incentive to bring broadband to the country.

We need something along the lines of the subsidies that gave us universal telephone service. The telcoms were granted the right to be a monopoly that was regulated and required to give service to all. The subsidies worked like this: long distance subsidized local, business subsidized residential and all subsidized rural which also received federally guaranteed loads to build the network.

Now, what I think will happen-nothing and all the grants etc will go into the pockets of scammers and lobbyists to never be seen again. The U.S. has lost the will to be a real leader and the corpse is just making carrion beetles fat.

We're apparently only interested in returning to some mythical past that only exists in the right-wing's fantasy. A past in which, in actuality, the USA was a middling nation at best.

It wasn't until the progressives truly took over in the last century that the US began to pull itself up the ladder by pursuing in equal rights for all aspects of our society, by investing in infrastructure, education and research and development. Most importantly, by realizing that we, the ENTIRE US, live in an extended community and that regressively taxing the poor and middle class while allowing the wealthy and uberwealthy amass an increasing percentage of the overall wealth was not the way to prosperity for all.

With its newly enacted law that has placed limitations on muncipalities seeking to create their own broadband network (because they're typically in the sticks and big company won't come there to offer the service commercially).

This is a good read if you aren't aware of this new law in NC (and, the big companies behind it because... low and behold, they're actually afraid of competition)

http://www.cedmagazine.com/News/2011/05/NC-North-Carolina-Perdue-broadband-law-bill-Internet.aspx