[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Throwing Money at Universal Broadband Isn't Enough here

[number6]

A government intervention in the market will have a number of unintended (or intended) consequences.
One would be the impossibility of being fair to all ISPs. Some would have disadvantages against the others.
This is another way of Congress taking more control over the market.

[harborsparrow]

"Building out the infrastructure" is cited by this article as some kind of insurmountable obstacle, but it is not. For most people, they are now (given current technology) within DSL range, and DSL is a cheap and viable broadband internet option obtainable over everyday phone lines.
DSL is available for most of the country, in fact, but is not AFFORDABLE by people with lesser incomes because companies are currently charging ~$40-$60/month for it.

[Sleepylazy49ers]

I pay $30.00 per month for AT&T HSI Pro 3.0/512 and that's less than $40.00.

[dreamerof]

We need to let the companies recoup their (substantial) costs and make money or it will never happen. I don't like paying my $43 rates for broadband either but I find it a valuable and entertaining resource so I do.
I could live without broadband but I choose not to. We surely can't afford to have the government prime the broadband pump with $$$ and then have the government start offering broadband access as yet another free entitlement program.
If you can't afford the access fees then you probably won't be able to afford the computer or other device required to access broadband either or are you expecting the government to provide that too?

[Evildave]

The last time they threw money at this problem - in the early 1990's - the telecommunications companies were supposed to install fiber-optic to EVERY DOOR. They were given tax breaks and incentives to the tune of hundreds of billions already. They were allowed to hike their rates and given enormous tax breaks to pay for it and have it all installed by 2000.

And the cash all evaporated into nothingness, and most people still have 30 to 50 year old copper wire to their doors and have 56K/28K dial-up instead of 45Megabit (up and down) glass like we were ALL promised.

Such remarkably short memories the American people have.

http://www.google.co...oadband+Scandal

All these current-day big-money give-aways are the government thrashing around in complete impotence to do anything constructive about the economy, as they keep trying to come up with new words for 'depression' that aren't scary. We already shipped all the means of production overseas, and then racked up enormous debt buying all we needed (and more) from the people who actually made our stuff for us. It'll take us half a century to climb back out of this pit we dug ourselves into, and that's if we even try. All signs indicate that everyone is content to keep digging all the way down to the magma.

And don't worry, it didn't matter which president we elected. We were given a choice of nimrods hand-picked by the power elite, who would only do what they are supposed to do.

So we're $10 trillion in the hole. What's another $10 trillion? And another? Hoard those coins, girls and boys! The metal will be worth more than the value stamped on every denomination, soon.

[jcastle]

If every home gets broadband why do we need to broadcast TV signals? The airwaves could then be used for mobile wireless broadband. Think of all the $$$ the feds could get auctioning off all those frequencies.