[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Billions for Broadband in Stimulus Bill Appear Likely here

[coastie65]

Companies such as Comcast, do not need a Government handout. They already have the resources, just not the where with all. If Comcast has to run 15 miles of cable to reach 5 potential customers, they aren't going to do it, thus the rural areas get left out. The franchises should be contingent on providing service for EVERYBODY, not just the densely population areas. coastie65

[number6]

Where is this money coming from? The government can't create wealth.

[coastie65]

They borrow it from countries such as the People's Republic of China and Saudi Arabia to name two, by selling them T-Bonds.

[number6]

Yes, but when they see how worthless our dollars are they'll stop lending, and we have to pay them back eventually. Not a good thing for future generations.

[coastie65]

Nope. And seeing as how they have been skimming the surplus from the Social Security Trust Fund and replacing it with them, not good,as it has been said that with it comes time to reddem those things in the trust fund there will be no money to do so. The guys and gals sitting up there doing this have feathered their retirement nests quite nicely in the meantime. coastie

[jalbertini1]

There should not be a dime given unless every corner of the country will get the same high speed service available as the fastest now available in the world.

If the most rural areas can't have a given level of service then no one should have it!

And while we're at it why do Japan & Korea have internet speads up to 10 times faster than the US average of 5 mbs (I only get 500 kbs)!

[coastie65]

jalbertini1 said:

There should not be a dime given unless every corner of the country will get the same high speed service available as the fastest now available in the world.

If the most rural areas can't have a given level of service then no one should have it!


And while we're at it why do Japan & Korea have internet speads up to 10 times faster than the US average of 5 mbs (I only get 500 kbs)!

Actually, I can get 50 mbps down and 20 mbps up, but at $89.95 per month, I'll stay with the 15 mbps down and 2 mbps up that I have. The rural areas get left out altogether, unless they go satellite. coastie

[thekindred69]

most people i know are at a minimum of 1.5 to 5 mb/sec download speeds i yeah i would like to see more but im happy with my 30mb/sec download and 3 mb/sec upload i would actually like to see more upload changes then anything but more download speeds would be nice also but we can do without comcast putting the bandwidth cap on us all 250gb a month is for crazy you pay for service and they cap you on it

[rasmasyean]

The US can sell weapons to Iraq and get "discounted oil" benefits that can help this plan. Iraq already has more than 30% of US foriegn weapons sales and will likely increase as government takes hold. And they have so much oil money (not to mention potential) that the govenrment needs lessons in treasuring training...which prolly comes from US too. lol

[coastie65]

Yeah, Those Folks up there in DC are in bad need of some Psychological / Psychiatric help, as they all have a compulsive spending disorder and absolutely no concept of economy and saving. coastie65

[waldojim]

I see MANY people here in ohio stuck with 768K - 1.5Mb service. (at&t and Verizon dsl offerings). That is pathetic.
Sure in SOME very limited cities you can find 5Mb and above, but that is a rare find.
I personally live in a rural market, where the cable run stops 1/4 mile from my house. I am 4.5 Cable miles from the Telephone exchange (no dsl) and satalite is NOT a viable alternative (High latency, low throughput, unreasonable caps (5GB a month!), and excessive cost $299 equipment @ $100/mo!) So my only choice for internet is Verizon Wireless aircard.
How many of you pay $60 for 2Mb service? I would love to see a stimulus package that requires broadband be delivered to us. It makes no sense to me, they can deliver 50Mb service to those in the city, but cannot drop me a reliable 3Mb service. They are getting ready to roll out 75 - 100 Mb service, and I cannot get 3Mb reliable. My average connection is ONLY .5Mb. Verizon will not turn on DSL at my place, because they cannot gaurantee a reliable 1.5Mb, Hell at the 19.95 rate for DSL I will take anything I can get!!! if its only 512K, at least its $40 cheaper than celular....
This ended up very long winded but still. Bring DSL to EVERYONE!!!!!

[rasmasyean]

I think our dot-com bust courtesy of Greenspan messed up all the fiber plans to wire the states up. Heck maybe some of them moved to Asia...who knows. But those who live far away from cities now have some new hope. Sprint and Clearwire for one are rolling out WiMax / 4G out to areas that may stretch the last mile for broadband access. And it's Mobile too. You can buy a coffee maker like thing and it gives you broadband without a wired connection. But I guess the issue now is whether they will have the money to do rollouts. But rest assured...where there's a will there's a way.

[number6]

Why would anyone want to make the entire country pay for his broadband? Why would anyone want to force a private company to lose money and go out of business by serving broadband to areas that can't pay the costs of implementing it?

[coastie65]

waldojim said:

I see MANY people here in ohio stuck with 768K - 1.5Mb service. (at&t and Verizon dsl offerings). That is pathetic.
Sure in SOME very limited cities you can find 5Mb and above, but that is a rare find.

I personally live in a rural market, where the cable run stops 1/4 mile from my house. I am 4.5 Cable miles from the Telephone exchange (no dsl) and satalite is NOT a viable alternative (High latency, low throughput, unreasonable caps (5GB a month!), and excessive cost $299 equipment @ $100/mo!) So my only choice for internet is Verizon Wireless aircard.

How many of you pay $60 for 2Mb service? I would love to see a stimulus package that requires broadband be delivered to us. It makes no sense to me, they can deliver 50Mb service to those in the city, but cannot drop me a reliable 3Mb service. They are getting ready to roll out 75 - 100 Mb service, and I cannot get 3Mb reliable. My average connection is ONLY .5Mb. Verizon will not turn on DSL at my place, because they cannot gaurantee a reliable 1.5Mb, Hell at the 19.95 rate for DSL I will take anything I can get!!! if its only 512K, at least its $40 cheaper than celular....

This ended up very long winded but still. Bring DSL to EVERYONE!!!!!

Hi, You make some very good points that I agree with. I have a very good friend and former shipmate that lives In the adjoining County and is some distance from the City limits where the developement is ongoing. He is in the same boat as you and had to resort to the Verizon wireless option as well. The cable stopped at the end of the road he lives on and didn't extend down it. The area, although growing , is still largely rural for the most part, as is the Eastern end of the County that I live in. There are areas in the City that will probably not see fiber in the foreseeable future. These are the areas with Pubic Housing and at present are not on the schedule to be wired. There is a safety factor involved in working in these areas, so that may have something to do with it. I couldn't get DSL either for the same reason and I wasn't paying Comcast's exorbitant rates either, so I lived with Dial up until FiOS became available. coastie

[number6]

You know what? I'm still waiting for the government to give me a yacht. Why don't we just go all the way with this socialism and let the government do everything for us? One problem: there would be no one to pay for it. As it is, it's the innocent that will be paying for everyone else's broadband when the benevolent government decides to give it to us.

[coastie65]

number6 said:

Why would anyone want to make the entire country pay for his broadband? Why would anyone want to force a private company to lose money and go out of business by serving broadband to areas that can't pay the costs of implementing it?

Hey Number, You best take another look at Comcast's rates and their customer service. Also take a look at the exploitive techiques they use. Trust me, Comcast is a greedy company and do a lot more for a lot less. Incidently, they are not a "Private" Company. They are publicy owned and traded on the stock exchange. coastie

[number6]

What do you mean by "publicly owned?" Is that government owned or the public owns it by virtue of their stock?

[coastie65]

Publicly owned by virtue of publicly owned stock. If Comcast bought up up all the outstanding shares, then they would be privately held and no longer publicly traded and listed. Here in Richmond, a majority of the Hospitals are owned by HCA and were publicly held and for profit. Several years ago, HCA bought up the outstanding shares and took it private. They then changed the designation to a nonprofit. This is actually better for the community as the only not for profit Hospitals were those ownd by Bon Securs (4) and the the one Unversity Based Hospital (VCU, was MCV ' Medical College of Virginia'). coastie

[waldojim]

This is not about giving things to people. This about declaring Internet as a public utility and making it a mandatory service that is available. What If I was in an area where 3g was not available? Or Cell service at all for that matter?

At this point in life, our economy nearly demands internet access for daily life. Most of those sites - government sites included, are too sloppy these days, and too flashy oriented for dial-up customers. If it takes me 10 minutes to get the local governments minutes downloaded because I can only get 33.6 service (yes I know 53 is the limit - but how many of you actually GOT 53k on dial-up?) then it is no longer practical.

This needs to be considered a utility at this point, and monitored, and regulated as such. Your power company didn't go out of buisness with that model, neither will verizon, comcast, or TW.