I’m sure we could afford it from muskrat’s government contracts ( our tax money )
Comment on SpaceX says states should dump fiber plans, give all grant money to Starlink
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 11 hours agoIt can’t, and the taxes you would pay to support fiber to my home would be extreme.
But fiber to a local wireless solution? Sure. But even that’s not possible for everyone, and they were expensive and unreliable until starlink started showing up. LEO internet has its benefits.
RangerAndTheCat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 9 hours ago
We can definitely afford it, especially with LUDs plus federal subsidies. That’s literally what they’re for.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Except that US ISPs have already been provided upwards of $80b to roll out a fiber optic backbone for rural connections, and have instead largely pocketed the funds and sat on their hands.
It has largely fallen to smaller communities to incorporate their own local ISPs and manage their own roll-outs, as such projects aren’t viewed as worthwhile for private companies.
Honestly, if Australia could roll out a national fiber backbone (almost a decade ago!) across the same approximate landmass as the contiguous 48 states at less than 10% of the overall population; there is no valid reason that the wealthiest nation to have ever existed can’t also do so.
Even if a Federal program (not under this administration, obviously) was to just run fibre parallel to the existing interstate highways, and leave the last (20) miles to local utilities - it would be cheaper, faster and more reliable than LEO - and without all the additional negatives that come with that!