| Parts of rural America have broadband | | | | provide access to third parties at wholesale |
| internet access and I guess you could say it | | | | prices. I am not sure what wholesale prices |
| is available to everyone if you consider the | | | | means but to a company like Verizon it means |
| satelite services which cover the entire | | | | another chance to gouge anyone who wants put |
| country which are ridiculously expensive for | | | | up the amount they will arbitrarily come up |
| the initial setup and monthly service. There | | | | with. |
| also is a patchwork of local providers | | | | |
| offering wireless internet services off of | | | | I think if some company is going to rent a |
| water towers and grain elevators and | | | | piece of this spectrum in their area it |
| buildings. These services are limited in the | | | | should be cheap, cheap to the point it is a |
| amount of bandwidth they can offer, not | | | | negligible expense in the operation of an |
| because the wireless gear is not capable of | | | | ISP\'s costs to provide internet access. The |
| high speeds, but because the actual t1s or | | | | telcos like to promote themselves as service |
| t3s to provide the backhaul to the internet | | | | providers. If one of them gets this spectrum |
| are so expensive. | | | | let them do a real service to this country |
| | | | and provide cheap access to everyone who is |
| The nice thing about this particular spectrum | | | | willing to do something valuable with the |
| is it will go through trees, walls, and just | | | | spectrum in their area. |
| about anything for a long distance from a | | | | |
| central broadcast point. So the cost of | | | | Each election cycle politicians have spouted |
| deployment is reduced because one central | | | | crap about bringing broadband access to rural |
| broadcast station will cover a large area and | | | | areas. First of all, I do not think they |
| the cost of setting it up and providing | | | | really know anything about the business and |
| internet access is spread over more | | | | the technology. Secondly, they have ignored |
| customers. This is all contingent upon local | | | | the large group of small companies that have |
| providers being able to gain access to the | | | | already been providing broadband access in |
| spectrum in their area. | | | | rural areas. Finally, they have been all to |
| | | | happy to take money from telcos that maintain |
| Google started a discussion about this | | | | a stranglehold on access out to the internet |
| spectrum and tried to influence the FCC to | | | | by charging too much for broadband circuits |
| require the purchaser of the spectrum to | | | | to carry rural traffic to the internet. |