New minimum speed for US broadband connections

Mon May 31 15:02:58 UTC 2021

On 5/31/21 16:17, Andy Ringsmuth wrote:

> Where there is a will, there is a way. The big boys don’t have the will to do it. Case after case after case after case after case demonstrates that fiber to the home can be done and can be done for a very reasonable cost. We read about smaller companies or municipalities every day doing it. And then the Big Boys come along and do EVERYTHING they can to stifle competition (getting all snarky about pole access, or pouring billions into lobbying against muni broadband that could be spent on, oh, I dunno, INSTALLING FIBER instead).

This is exactly what happened (and continues to happen) in South Africa.

The first FTTH roll-outs were not by the incumbent. Nearly 6 years 
later, the incumbent joined the party seriously and is, actually, the 
lowest priced fibre provider.

But on the whole, it's the small, nondescript companies, that continue 
to pave the way.

I got FTTH to my house back in 2015, when 99.999% of the country was 
still on ADSL. My installation was done by the company's CEO on a chilly 
Saturday morning. I was still in my gown.

It's not a thing anymore (even though fibre is, really, limited to the 
large cities), but the constant theme is that folk aren't hanging around 
picking their noses, waiting for gubbermint policy to egg them on.

Mark.