New minimum speed for US broadband connections

Wed Jun 2 19:18:04 UTC 2021

Wed, Jun 02, 2021 at 01:02:00PM -0400, Josh Luthman:
> Phone is telecom.  Internet is not telecom.  Generally speaking.
> 
> If you think both of those services are US funded, why do you think we have
> this current situation where not everyone has fiber?
> 
> To answer your question, there is some assistance to those big companies
> (AT&T, Frontier, CenturyLink).  Did you notice that two of them have filed
> bankruptcy recently?  They also wrote letters apologizing they didn't
> deploy the services they were paid to do.
> 
> USF is for phone.  Not internet.

I believe that is incorrect.  afaik, 4 Internet connectivity programs have
been created within the USF.  iirc, that occured 7 - 10 years ago.  I think
CAF granted ~1.5T in its last phase.

All support/subsidy for traditional dial-tone from the USF should be
redirected to voip and internet.

A significant problem with USF grants is that grantees are not required
to serve an entire FCC census tract (an area much smaller than a USPS
zip code) when they accept a grant to service it.  Meaning that if just a
portion, the most convenient portion, of a census tract is serviced, the
FCC is satisfied and then considers the entire tract served.  Which is
exactly what happened to my area, thanks FCC & Comcast - who also will not
discuss extending it the ~.5 mile to reach me and neighbors.

I'd be delighted to have 25M symmetrical.  What I can buy at consumer
prices (~$55 MRC) is .8M/.8M DSL (MTR > 30 days for a few neighbors after
the last storm).  If I were located about 1.5 in any direction, I could
buy 100M/100M or 1G/100M.  No viable 4G or 5G options.  There is Sprint
fiber about 300 feet away, but I'm told it is voice only.  There is
Zayo fiber about .5 miles away, 100M for ~$1k MRC lit or ~$4k dark to
the telco hotel, but it also has other challanges.