Internet access is now a “right”?

[jillian]

See wasteful govt spending

Really? Did you know that kids from middle school on up can't do a lot of their homework assignments without internet access?

 

[Oddball]

Here is another linkn.

Broadband Connection Highs and Lows Across Rural America | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural

Whoopie.

I live in rural areas for a good part of any given year and we don't have 8-lane interstates either. Yet, at the family compound in the Wisco backwoods, we still have broadband service.

Your decade-old lefty dog just don't hunt.

 

[Meister]

Here is another linkn.

Broadband Connection Highs and Lows Across Rural America | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural

I guess there just isn't any up to date information on your subject. I'm not blaming you at all on the info, just that there is nothing more current, and with the way this industry has been expanding, I would think there is some very critical data on this.

 

[Oddball]

Here is another linkn.

Broadband Connection Highs and Lows Across Rural America | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural

I guess there just isn't any up to date information on your subject. I'm not blaming you at all on the info, just that there is nothing more current, and with the way this industry has been expanding, I would think there is some very critical data on this.

Those numbers also work off of the presumption that desire for internet service is 100%....Which is fallacious on its face.

 

[CaféAuLait]

while almost every single American has both computer and internet access

that is the crap.

Seriously? I haven't met anyone in years who didn't have a computer and internet. You are out of your mind if you think some vast swath of Americans have no computers. I've been all over the ghetto working in government subsidized apartments, occupied by arguably the poorest people in America, and they almost all had computers in them.

And I'll bet you a dollar to a dog biscuit that a lot of those people are piggybacking unsecured wireless signals.....For free.

Do we have to buy the poor their computers as well? It only stands to reason that if one does not have 20 $ a month for computer access, they will not have enough to buy computers too.

 

[nodoginnafight]

I think if you actually look at what they are doing is trying to provide broadband service to rural areas where for-profit companies don't see a pay-off and just don't offer it. While dail up maybe available in rural areas - faster service is not. A lot of data transmission is impossible with the speeds available and that hurts business. It's an economic development issue.

Same thing happened the the mid-1930s with electricity.

The answer - private cooperatives. Worked with electricity - it'll work with this too (much the same infrastructure even.) Problem being - the Federal government made some pretty big investments to help get TVA going to supply the co-ops in the southeast.

 

[CaféAuLait]

From the article:

The FCC's third option for broadening Internet access, floated last month, has already stirred controversy.

The agency suggested that it might reclaim some airwaves from TV station owners and auction them off to wireless companies for more high-speed wireless Internet services.

"Reclaim" what a novel word.

 

[uscitizen]

Easy to deny if you do not track it.

"Broadband Penetration

The reach of broadband nationwide is also unknown. There is no comprehensive tracking of broadband service, including which neighborhoods, towns and cities have it and which don't. No federal agency or private group keeps track.

But surveys conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicate 57 percent of the people interviewed nationwide do have broadband connections at home. But only 41 percent of the rural respondents connect at high speeds. "

Stimulus Stirs Debate Over Rural Broadband Access : NPR

 

[toomuchtime_]

When It Comes To Broadband, U.S. Plays Follow The Leader

The United States often views itself as a paragon of technology innovation and deployment. In some cases, that view is correct, but not when it comes to broadband deployment, where the country lags considerably behind other major nations. Here's why.

By Richard Hoffman
InformationWeek
February 15, 2007 12:00 AM

Broadband access in the United States continues to grow at an impressive rate, from 60 million users in March 2005 to 84 million in March 2006, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. As-yet unpublished survey data gathered by Pew in December 2006 shows that 45% of respondents now report broadband access at home.

Despite these compelling growth statistics, the reality isn't quite so rosy, especially when comparing broadband progress in the United States with other industrialized countries.

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Path Intelligence installs sensors in high traffic areas. Those sensors detect cell phones and can use that data to examine traffic patterns and behavior, which can be viewed & analyzed in real time.
According to a study by U.K.-based Point Topic, as of the third quarter in 2006, the United States led the world in total number of broadband lines installed with 54.5 million lines, followed by China with 48.6 million. The same Point Topic report, however, indicates that broadband growth rates are much higher in other countries -- for example, China is now projected to surpass the U.S. in total broadband lines within 2007, given current trends. And the total number of broadband lines, while a useful figure for some purposes, isn't the most meaningful statistic for measuring how common and widespread access really is, or to compare broadband progress relative to other nations.

For these judgments, metrics based on per-capita household penetration provide a clearer picture. For instance, it's inevitable that, due to its vastly higher population, China will surpass the U.S. in total number of broadband lines, even if the percentage of people in China with broadband lines stays quite small and access is restricted largely to affluent urban areas.

Looking at the more representative measurement of the percentage of those who have access to broadband connectivity, the United States isn't even in the top 10 countries, various studies indicate. President George W. Bush admitted back in 2004 that while broadband use had tripled over the previous four years, the U.S. then ranked 10th among industrialized nations for broadband availability, and he added, "Tenth is 10 spots too low, as far as I'm concerned." Now almost three years later, how much progress have we made, and where do we stand?

more at link.
When It Comes To Broadband, U.S. Plays Follow The Leader -- Internet Access -- InformationWeek

According to a New York Times article from last month,

We’ve actually done surprisingly well making a broadband connection accessible to a vast majority of American households. No less than 96 percent of households either subscribe to or have access to broadband service, according to an F.C.C. task force, which presented a status report to the commission last month.

The report does not play up the fact that almost all homes have, or could have, broadband service.

Nor does it highlight the actual median speed of 3 megabits a second among households that now have broadband, (which is based on data that probably understates the speeds substantially). The authors seem happily caught up in the thrill of playing an international game of catch-up.

The most interesting question here is the one that the F.C.C. can’t answer: Why have 33 percent of American households that have access to broadband elected not to subscribe? The reasons “are not well understood,” the report says. A survey focusing on the nonadopters is under way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/business/18digi.html

 

[Ravi]

I think if you actually look at what they are doing is trying to provide broadband service to rural areas where for-profit companies don't see a pay-off and just don't offer it. Despite Dude's experience, I can tell you while dail up maybe available in rural areas - faster service is not. A lot of data transmission is impossible with the speeds available anfd that hurts business. It's an economic development issue.

Same thing happened the the mid-1930s with electricity.

The answer - private cooperatives. Worked with electricity - it'll work with this too (much the same infrastructure even. Problkem being - the Federal government made some pretty big investments to help get TVA going to supply the co-ops in the southeast.

I see it as more of an access to communications issue...like television.

As Jillian pointed out, most schools require some hook up to the internet for their students.

 

[uscitizen]

Broadband Internet is also good for the economy.

 

[Ravi]

Broadband Internet is also good for the economy.

Good point...I always see investing in technology as a good thing.

 

[Oddball]

I think if you actually look at what they are doing is trying to provide broadband service to rural areas where for-profit companies don't see a pay-off and just don't offer it. Despite Dude's experience, I can tell you while dail up maybe available in rural areas - faster service is not. A lot of data transmission is impossible with the speeds available anfd that hurts business. It's an economic development issue.

Same thing happened the the mid-1930s with electricity.

The answer - private cooperatives. Worked with electricity - it'll work with this too (much the same infrastructure even. Problkem being - the Federal government made some pretty big investments to help get TVA going to supply the co-ops in the southeast.

My cell phone doesn't work in more rural areas than those which don't have broadband, including the family spread up north....Where's my subsidy?

 

[Oddball]

Broadband Internet is also good for the economy.

Platitudes, slogans and truisms aren't any kind of an argument.

 

[uscitizen]

I have to wonder what is broadband access? If you have a cell phone that is G3 capable is that broadband access? Even if it does not work in your area?

Also those who have multiple accounts on the net do they count as multiple users? ie net at work, at home and on blackberry?

 

[nodoginnafight]

I think if you actually look at what they are doing is trying to provide broadband service to rural areas where for-profit companies don't see a pay-off and just don't offer it. Despite Dude's experience, I can tell you while dail up maybe available in rural areas - faster service is not. A lot of data transmission is impossible with the speeds available anfd that hurts business. It's an economic development issue.

Same thing happened the the mid-1930s with electricity.

The answer - private cooperatives. Worked with electricity - it'll work with this too (much the same infrastructure even. Problkem being - the Federal government made some pretty big investments to help get TVA going to supply the co-ops in the southeast.

My cell phone doesn't work in more rural areas than those which don't have broadband, including the family spread up north....Where's my subsidy?

Sorry, they don't care about you. If it starts hurting business, maybe you can piggy-back.

btw - MY cell works all over where they don't have high-speed.

 

[Oddball]

I have to wonder what is broadband access? If you have a cell phone that is G3 capable is that broadband access? Even if it does not work in your area?

Also those who have multiple accounts on the net do they count as multiple users? ie net at work, at home and on blackberry?

Irrelevant...I want my cell phone to work everywhere!

Gimmie my subsidy!

 

[nodoginnafight]

Broadband Internet is also good for the economy.

Yes, a lot of businesses depend on rapid data transmission.

 

[Mike458877]

Internet access is now a “right”?

Feds Mull Rules, Fees to Spur Net Access

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators are considering whether the government should take greater control of the Internet and ask consumers to pay higher phone charges in order to provide all Americans with cheaper access to broadband Internet service.

FCC officials estimate it could cost anywhere from $20 billion to $350 billion to connect all American households to high-speed Internet service, depending on speed offered.
They haven't yet said how much of that investment might come from taxpayers.

Feds Mull Rules, Fees to Spur Net Access - WSJ.com

Give me a freaking break!

ah Liberalism ....... what can one say, it's a diamond in the rough!

Bend over a little further America and take the pain! It's for our own good or so they tell us!

Mike

 

[jillian]

I see it as more of an access to communications issue...like television.

As Jillian pointed out, most schools require some hook up to the internet for their students.

Thanks. It also replaces encyclopedias; newspapers; and libraries in terms of students dong research and projects. My son's english classes couldn't even get their reading assignments and worksheets without internet access.

why do they always get up in arms about spending money on things that help people and are all gung ho about spending money on wars?