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April 4, 2007
Two cheers for universal service
Hillary Clinton is pushing some sort of rural broadband service plan:
The Rural Broadband Initiatives Act. This legislation will extend and improve access to broadband services in small towns across America. It creates a policy and action framework to ensure that the federal government employs an effective and comprehensive strategy to deploy broadband service and access in the rural areas of the United States. The bill will also establish a Rural Broadband Innovation fund to explore and develop cutting edge broadband delivery technologies to reach underserved rural areas. The Rural Broadband Initiatives Act has been endorsed by the Communications Workers of America.
Speaking as someone who suffered with ISDN for years and just cut over to (my only real option) Comcast "business" service at $120/month (a significant savings) in order to get decent speed and some static IP addresses, I've just gone one question: "Palo Alto is rural, right?"
Posted by ekr at April 4, 2007 6:36 AM | Filed under: Networking
Comments
I'm glad that the Communication Workers of America have endorsed the plan, being experts on internet technologies and all.
Posted by: Perry E. Metzger at April 4, 2007 10:10 AM
This is a very important first step. There are a lot of other proposals for expanding high speed access on the CWA's Speed Matters website at http:///www.speedmatters.org.
Posted by: Laura Unger at April 4, 2007 10:56 AM
Yeah, cry me a river FTTH town. Now Portola Valley -- that's rural!
Posted by: Craig Hughes at April 4, 2007 11:23 AM
I'll see your Portola Valley and raise you Saratoga foothills.
Posted by: Allan Schiffman at April 7, 2007 2:48 AM