[News] US Broadband proliferation may not be as widespread as you thought

[Bowielee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18broadband.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

It seems that rural areas are still really slow to adopt broadband.

It's grown some since this report came out:

http://gigaom.com/broadband/global-broadband-zooms-us-penetration-is-over-80-percent/

but it's still far from full proliferation.

For the record, I'll be pointing this article out, pretty much every time that someone makes the argument that everyone is always connected to the internet.

 

[makare]

Yeah this kind of thing is why I get annoyed trying to explain to people that you don't NEED the internet. I mean I personally feel like I do but I dont. I know many people who not only do not have broadband but do not have any internet access at all. Miracle of miracles they are surviving just fine.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I live in a very rural area. You don't even want to know the kind of desperate kludge I've put together just to have half decent internet service.

 

[Frank]

10+ years after our government installed an amazingly super fast, high traffic fiber optic network (on the tax payers dime) for our ISPs to provide us with fast internet we are FINALLY getting to use them, albeit at incredibly exorbitant prices and often enough with insanely low bandwidth caps. Why? Because the folks in charge of regulating this shit are future and former telecom executives. Corruption is awesome.

 

[figmentPez]

Yeah this kind of thing is why I get annoyed trying to explain to people that you don't NEED the internet. I mean I personally feel like I do but I dont. I know many people who not only do not have broadband but do not have any internet access at all. Miracle of miracles they are surviving just fine.

It's at the point where saying "you don't need the internet" is like saying "you don't need air conditioning", for a lot of people the internet provides essential information and connections that have as big an impact on quality of life as cool air. Depending on what direction internet connected devices take, this lack of need might reach the point of being on par with "you don't need a refrigerator" or "you don't need indoor plumbing". People live without air conditioning, refrigerators and toilets. Just because they can doesn't mean that should just be accepted.

 

[IronBrig4]

For a full year, I lived in the most wired country in the world. South Korea had broadband and cell service everywhere except for the DMZ. It's easy to take it for granted.

 

[jwhouk]

I live in a very rural area. You don't even want to know the kind of desperate kludge I've put together just to have half decent internet service.

I'm sorry, but after reading that I just have to know.

Especially since I'm in Northern BFN Wisconsin and I still manage to get broadband Internet via Charter.

 

[sixpackshaker]

I live in a very rural area, but thank God that there is a cellphone tower at the end of my road. So since I am in the "copper loop" I can get my DSL.

 

[grub]

Depending on the length of the copper loop the telco will use "loaded" cable. The load coils remove all of the noise that could be induced, clearing up the phone signal, and remove the dsl in the process. The fiber internet ports are really expensive ( $1M) and the ones my work uses only handle ~ 200 people.

 

[Bowielee]

I'm sorry, but after reading that I just have to know.

Especially since I'm in Northern BFN Wisconsin and I still manage to get broadband Internet via Charter.

Hey, question for you, you probably don't live that far from me, how is Charter's cable service? I'm getting tired of getting sexually abused by my DSL provider.

 

[Bowielee]

I meant internet service... for some reason it won't let me edit my post.

 

[jwhouk]

I meant internet service... for some reason it won't let me edit my post.

Eh. It's about the same as it was for Roadrunner down in the 262. I'm not sure if they do throttling or anything like that, because I'm not a heavy online gamer.

 

[Bowielee]

Well, basically where I'm at right now, I'm paying almost 70.00/m for DSL for 6 MB/s (which generally runs about half that a quarter fo the time). Charter claims 30 MB/s for around 50.00/m so I'm wondering if the advertised speed is anywhere near what I'd be getting. I'd pay 50/m if I was getting at least a consistant 15MB/s.

 

[jwhouk]

Well, testing things out over at www.bandwidthplace.com got me this:

Download Speed: 5907 kbps (738.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 3687 kbps (460.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Monday, March 19, 2012 9:33:43 AM

 

[Frank]

My package right now is supposedly 50 mb/s

 

[Gared]

It's at the point where saying "you don't need the internet" is like saying "you don't need air conditioning", for a lot of people the internet provides essential information and connections that have as big an impact on quality of life as cool air. Depending on what direction internet connected devices take, this lack of need might reach the point of being on par with "you don't need a refrigerator" or "you don't need indoor plumbing". People live without air conditioning, refrigerators and toilets. Just because they can doesn't mean that should just be accepted.

Air conditioning? What is this conditioning of the air of which you speak? Oh... right... it's that setting in the car that gets used once, maybe twice a year... right...

 

[figmentPez]

Air conditioning? What is this conditioning of the air of which you speak? Oh... right... it's that setting in the car that gets used once, maybe twice a year... right...

I live near Houston, TX. The last time we lost power for a significant period was after Hurricane Ike. By the end of the second day I was hallucinating from the heat. Thankfully a cool front moved in, but if it hadn't I would have had to move somewhere cool. I know you were being funny, but I just want to underscore what I mean by "big impact on quality of life".

 

[Gared]

I live near Houston, TX. The last time we lost power for a significant period was after Hurricane Ike. By the end of the second day I was hallucinating from the heat. Thankfully a cool front moved in, but if it hadn't I would have had to move somewhere cool. I know you were being funny, but I just want to underscore what I mean by "big impact on quality of life".

Well, to be honest, I wasn't completely just being funny. I was also pointing out that something that is a big impact on quality of life where you are isn't necessarily a big impact on quality of life everywhere or for every person. We rarely see summer temps over 80 degrees on this side of Washington, so A/C isn't an issue for us. My parents live in the middle of nowhere, but don't maintain a huge online presence, so not having broadband access isn't a huge issue for them. They also haven't had access to cable TV for the last 11 years which is also not a problem for them. It may be true that for you, personally, not having internet access is as much a problem for your quality of life as not having A/C would be; but that doesn't mean that it's true for everyone.

 

[figmentPez]

It may be true that for you, personally, not having internet access is as much a problem for your quality of life as not having A/C would be; but that doesn't mean that it's true for everyone.

That's true, not everyone's life is heavily impacted by internet access, but those who do benefit from internet access (the disabled, most notably) are not limited by region, and in some ways it's rural areas which will most benefit from internet access. The information I can get off the internet may be available at the library or from a doctor that's within an hour's drive, for someone further out that information may not be available even spending most of the day traveling. Readily available information can drastically change lives. I don't really feel like typing up all the ways that can happen, but it won't take long reading science and medial news to figure out that the internet can do far more than provide cat videos, video games and, before someone can make a joke about it, porn.

 

[Bowielee]

Well, testing things out over at www.bandwidthplace.com got me this:

What advertised speed of the package you have?

 

[Bowielee]

My package right now is supposedly 50 mb/s

I'd kill for an actual 27 meg connection.

 

[Frank]

But I'm paying for a 50 meg connection.

 

[GasBandit]

Beeyotch, I still got 8. EIGHT. And really, I'd be more happy with it if it just didn't cut out for 10 seconds every so often, especially on weekends.

 

[Frank]

I'm guessing I'm paying A LOT more than you guys are for my connection. Canadian high speed internet prices are fucking insane, especially considering the tax payers already foot the bill for the fiber optic network.

 

[jwhouk]

What advertised speed of the package you have?

Plus, at 30/4.

 

[Bowielee]

Plus, at 30/4.

Wait, Am I understanding this right? you pay for a 30 megabyte connection and only get a little over 5?

 

[Frank]

That's rough!

 

[Shakey]

My choices are still either dialup or satellite, both of which suck balls and are insanely expensive. I can either pay $25 a month for horribly slow dialup service along with an extra phone line for it for another $20 totaling $45 or pay $70 for a satellite connection with a 7gb cap and 1500ms ping times. My wireless is sketchy, and I end up piling towers of random things to get my phone in position so it can find a connection. That's what I'm using right now though. I wouldn't exactly call it an option, because half the time I can't find a signal.

Telecom companies just don't want to come out here with DSL. Even when the government gives them money to, they drag their feet and eventually claim it costs too much and they already ran out of the money given to them. We'll see if the latest broadband stimulus does anything. It's crap. The moment charter came in to the town I work at with 50 meg service, our DSL speeds magically jumped from 6 meg to 25 meg within a few days. It's not that they can't make money in rural areas, it's that they have no incentive to do anything because of the lack of competition.

 

[jwhouk]

I'd complain more if I did more on the 'net other than stream radio and occasionally watch youtube videos. I don't do the latter, so I really don't do the former.