• SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    We did the same for urban fiber. It’s never materialized, either. And, the USDA has been providing funding and loans for rural broadband for quite awhile.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s almost like the foxes are running the hen house, as the old saying goes.

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’ve read there’s lots of “dark” fiber in cities, but I don’t know if it’s true. I do know that AT&T has a fiber line that runs through my neighborhood, yet I can’t get fiber internet. Really stupid.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        “Whats this?”

        “Thats the fiber line.”

        “Oh, cool. Can I get fiber?”

        “No.”

        “Why not?”

        “We’d need some federal grants to run some fiber first.”

        “But the fiber is right here.”

        “We need that for other people to get fiber.”

        “Well, why can’t I access it too?”

        “Ugh! I told you! We need public money to our multibillion dollar company to use this fiber line thats already here!”

        “I don’t understand…”

        “You wouldn’t.”

      • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        AT&T has a copper wire connected to my house but they refuse to offer me any service at all because they “dOnT oFfEr DsL aNyMoRe.” Shitty DSL is shitty DSL but it’s better than nothing. At least I have access to Cable but I know plenty of people who don’t. That shit should be illegal.

        • Amanda@aggregatet.org
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          5 months ago

          I have the same situation almost. We have fiber from Telia delivered to the basement of our apartment building where it’s converted to cable by Tele2, who rents access to Telia’s fiber. Neither of them were willing to sell me or the organisation that owns the building access to fiber, even though it would have required only activating an outlet on whatever fiber switch thing they have in the basement.

          Tele2 also has a monopoly on internet access; it’s that or 4G/5G.

          This led to the absurd situation where we have a special coax outlet, followed by a cable modem right next to the fiber switch to supply the intercom system with very very expensive and terribly slow internet.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I do know that AT&T has a fiber line that runs through my neighborhood, yet I can’t get fiber internet

        The local exchange carriers (LECs) typically change from plain olds telephone system (POTS) to fiber at the neighborhood level. Coax carriers also.

        Fiber to the neighborhood is already there. It’s not hard to run a line across a neighborhood to connect whatever on either side.

        The difficult part is getting from a neighborhood connection to each individual home. It’s a flower pot install on each property, all connected together underground, and it can’t fuck with gas, water, sewer, etc.

        • reddig33@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Seems like they could connect something wireless to the fiber to provide internet to the home.

          • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            The entire cellular network, particularly T-Mo 5G unlimited, would put it to shame. If one wants better then Starlink.

            The way to do wireless would be to form a neighborhood ISP, put up a tower, then wireless P2P to each home. I’ve seen it in a few places. More common is citywide wifi.

          • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            As soon as those decades old and severely degraded copper lines are replaced in all of those old neighborhoods where fiber is slowest to roll out, DSL can provide a higher cost and subpar service on a deprecated standard. That’s exactly what we need with a surplus of capacity on modern hardware already deployed in the field.

            We’ll all have broadband in no time if they’d just listen to you.

    • sunzu@kbin.run
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      5 months ago

      American taxpayer is always paying for major CapEx for most industries then turn around and price gouge us.

      Most amercians see to be fine with it since they live in a free market economy where private sector funds investment.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        free market economy where private sector funds investment

        If that’s how it actually worked we might accept it. But, today there’s little distinction between public and private: Corporations own our government.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      5 months ago

      I don’t think that the United States Department of Agriculture is involved in subsidizing urban fiber.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah. That’s wasn’t very clear. The USDA has been funding and providing loans for rural broadband. About $1b, IIRC.

        Thanks for the pointing that out.