Wed, Jun 02, 2021 at 01:02:00PM -0400, Josh Luthman: > Phone is telecom. Internet is not telecom. Generally speaking. > > If you think both of those services are US funded, why do you think we have > this current situation where not everyone has fiber? > > To answer your question, there is some assistance to those big companies > (AT&T, Frontier, CenturyLink). Did you notice that two of them have filed > bankruptcy recently? They also wrote letters apologizing they didn't > deploy the services they were paid to do. > > USF is for phone. Not internet.
I believe that is incorrect. afaik, 4 Internet connectivity programs have been created within the USF. iirc, that occured 7 - 10 years ago. I think CAF granted ~1.5T in its last phase. All support/subsidy for traditional dial-tone from the USF should be redirected to voip and internet. A significant problem with USF grants is that grantees are not required to serve an entire FCC census tract (an area much smaller than a USPS zip code) when they accept a grant to service it. Meaning that if just a portion, the most convenient portion, of a census tract is serviced, the FCC is satisfied and then considers the entire tract served. Which is exactly what happened to my area, thanks FCC & Comcast - who also will not discuss extending it the ~.5 mile to reach me and neighbors. I'd be delighted to have 25M symmetrical. What I can buy at consumer prices (~$55 MRC) is .8M/.8M DSL (MTR > 30 days for a few neighbors after the last storm). If I were located about 1.5 in any direction, I could buy 100M/100M or 1G/100M. No viable 4G or 5G options. There is Sprint fiber about 300 feet away, but I'm told it is voice only. There is Zayo fiber about .5 miles away, 100M for ~$1k MRC lit or ~$4k dark to the telco hotel, but it also has other challanges.
