“My Inner Luddite assumes that the chief drivers of broadband-envy are gaming and movie downloads. He finds neither of these activities morally urgent.”
Most companies make some effort to protect their information resources. One way they do this is with virtual private networks (VPNs). Working remotely means that these VPNs need to be efficient, and one weak link in this chain is the underlying network connection to the remote location. So, if you live in podunk New Mexico, where the network connectivity is poor, and get a job for an Albuquerque or out-of-state firm and need to work remotely (because you couldn’t possibly afford to move to somewhere with a higher cost of living), then you are at a clear disadvantage in doing your work. The company’s applications will flake out or become unresponsive while your colleagues (competitors) who are on site will progress on their work. Now one might argue that their network connections might not flake out if it were not for those idiots playing their pointless games and idling themselves watching movies – all while clogging up the little bandwidth that there is. But given that people do that, it seems like a having some headroom would be a good thing. Marcus
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