No. They were paid to provide services, which is what they did/do. The rural customers pay no more than urban customers but use a hell of a lot lot more infrastructure. Broadband is now a service that can be used for RUS, that’s all.
Comment on SpaceX blasts FCC as it refuses to reinstate Starlink’s $886 million grant
wahming@monyet.cc 1 year agoThey were paid to provide broadband services to the rural areas. As millions of people living in the rural areas can attest, the majority of their promises were not fulfilled.
Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Brkdncr@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Hi, it’s me with my rural community that doesn’t have service at all.
Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Whereabouts
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I have friends who live within a handful of miles of DC with ZERO wired infrastructure. Fortunately that part of the US is pretty flat, and an LTE provider decided to cover the area.
Mind, they’re about 1 mile from a major highway, so it’s not like they’re in the back woods.
The cable company was paid to build to that area 40 years ago, but never did it.
I agree building out wired infrastructure seems to make the most sense, as it’s pretty robust, and we’re often finding new ways to increase effective bandwidth (even on good old telephone wires). But it’s a bit of chicken and egg, like any network infrastructure (water, sewer, roads, bridges, etc).
Brkdncr@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
One of the desert communities.
wahming@monyet.cc 1 year ago
RUS
Just so we’re clear, the discussion here is not about RUS, but the Rural Broadband Initiative. ISPs were paid billions to bring broadband services to the countryside. They took the money and did nothing with it.
Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Rural Utility Service is the government body where the initiative exists. Hard to bring a true broadband to rural areas. For any decent customer penetration you need radio. IDK, but I think 5G qualifies if there isn’t a range problem.
HerrBeter@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Sweden got fiber to small communities and towns 20 years ago
robotopera@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
They’ve been paid multiple times to do it.