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Biden announces $930 million going into ISP pockets in effort to expand internet access to out-of-touch Americans who can't read this headline (apnews.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/politics@kbin.social
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The federal effort to expand internet access to every U.S. home has taken a major step forward with the announcement of $930 million in grants to shore up connections in dozens of places where significant connectivity gaps persist. Those places include remote parts of Alaska and rural Texas. The so-called middle mile grants are intended to trigger the laying of 12,000 miles of fiber through 35 states and Puerto Rico. The middle mile is the midsection of the infrastructure necessary to enable internet access, composed of high-capacity lines carrying lots of data quickly. The expansion is among several initiatives pushed through Congress by President Joe Biden's administration to expand high-speed internet connectivity.

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[–] [S] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

I am with you on rural America getting the short end of the Internet stick! It's just that historically we've given ISPs over $400 billion dollars and they didn't hold up their end of the bargain:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394

Giving them more money isn't going to solve the problem. We're at that phase of the game where we need to stop letting them scam us and just do it ourselves. We already build our own roads which is vastly more complicated and requires much more money than laying fiber. If we can make interstates we can lay down fiber optic cable.

We can charge ISPs for the privilege to use it and make different ISPs compete on the same physical network. That's how it works in many countries and it's a perfectly legitimate way to make ISPs incredibly angry which I think we can all agree would be an ideal outcome. If they don't like it we can set up a time next week between 10AM and 4PM to wait for us to show up to discuss. When we don't show up we will make them call to reschedule 👍

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Community-owned broadband is a fun legal zone. Some States are moving to dismantle it, some others to protect it, all while most are mute on it.

    Is a muninipality legally entitled to set up its own broadband network? Doesn't matter what you think, the telcos are spending their lobby dollars to prevent it where it has traction. Same for Tribal areas too.

    We can talk about "incredibly angry" here: the telco isn't the internet I worked a lifetime to build. Demand more. #

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