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 11 months 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 11 months ago
Brkdncr@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Hi, it’s me with my rural community that doesn’t have service at all.
Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Whereabouts
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 11 months 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 11 months ago
One of the desert communities.
wahming@monyet.cc 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months ago
Sweden got fiber to small communities and towns 20 years ago
robotopera@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
They’ve been paid multiple times to do it.