Posted on 07/29/2025 8:29:04 AM PDT by Twotone
“Fiber optic is far cheaper than satellites.”
I’d dispute that. I was in that business for 10 years. Even in rural areas fiber costs run somewhere around $250-300 per foot in the ground. In dense urban areas that quickly goes to $8,000 to $10,000 per FOOT.
Then there are the access issues. Got a stream or river in the way? You’re done. Railroad rights of way? You’re done. It takes 6 months to a year to get them to sign off crossing their tracks.
We used to joke that we were really a paving company that happened to leave fiber in the ground.
So a blanket statement like that makes no sense to me.
L
I am sort of lucky..got dialup in 97,progressivelu increased from 14.4 to 56k over several years,then DSL on the copper at 256k.Which soon increased to 1M.
Was in the first of my area to get FORCEDfiber optic at 1G.(because the copper was abandoned once fiber was buried).Crew took a week or two burying 1.5 miles longitudally boring through the rocks!
Been paying $85 monthly for a long time.
Backup battery keeps phone for a few hours but not router.
Tempted to go Boost or Tmobile.
” promised to provide $42 billion in subsidies to expand broadband internet in underdeveloped areas. This sounds good in theory,”
BULLCRAP. Why should anyone pay for someone’s internet service. Besides. “Broadband” is outdated already. By the time even an inch of new cable would be laid the next generation of satellite internet will be up and running.
I don’t have a land line anymore, but if anyone does are you still paying the “rural connectivity tax”
Usually the fiber optic systems have battery backups. Ours does, about a mile down the road, IIRC. There’s also a backup battery just for the module in our house. When it failed, I just asked the rural telephone company that is our ISP for a new battery. They dropped it off @ my back door when I was away - then couldn’t decide if I needed to return the old one or not. They finally decide “not” and it’s a paperweight now. ;-)
I’d like to know how the article writer came up with $100,000 per customer for installation of fiber optic to a residence. Where was that, in the Absaroka Mountains?
(Then again, if environmental impact statements are required for each residence, I could believe it!)
I have Starlink. Nothing but 5g available otherwise but i use a lot of bandwidth for streaming and cameras and other internet decvices. I’d dump it for cable or fiber though.
We got fiber optic this year and the phone company got over a dozen new trucks. Meanwhile union workers from out of state had to do the splicing as per fedgov grant rules. The new trucks are parked behind the phone company and I’ve never seen one out and about. New company name too. Boondoggle.
The problem is, running fiber or cable to a lot really remote locations is very expensive.
Biden was the democrats gold mine for spending and setting up Trump for a chaos list to clean up.
They will not sleep well for the next 3 years.
Yes it is. We were quoted 14k to have cable extended to us.
Nice on Starlink - US pricing is running at least 2+X that.
“I wonder who owns Mediacom. I’d bet some DNC connected person who got paid plenty to lay cable, but not to actually connect anyone.”
I’m in red Alabama but yeah, the kick backs are pretty much taken for granted.
“We have been on Starlink for at least 3 years and couldn’t be happier!”
I get decent speeds with T Mobile Home Internet, no data cap, and it’s only $65 a month with no equipment charge. I’m staying with that for now. Quick story: I knocked my router off the shelf and broke it. T Mobile sent me a new one. I managed to screw up the socket for the SIM card while installing it (yes, I’m an idiot). They sent me another router again, and didn’t charge me a dime. I kind of feel like I owe them.
We are probably still spending billions on Al Gores dial-up modems.
The time, labor and material cost of running cable or fiber for potentially miles for a relatively few number of users is cost prohibitive versus a single dish per user
Photo of cables being dug up by excavator.
Looks like spaghetti being swirled on a spoon.
https://tinyurl.com/2ssnm7dv
And of cource they didn't do it for anyone else's good just their own greed.
“My” backup battery doesnt power the router.Had same experience as you when first battery died.
Contemplating install BIG battery for router and fiber unit.
Yeah, my router is powered off the UPS for my main desktop computer.
I still have a monstrous old UPS that takes 2 automotive size batteries. Maybe someday I’ll revive it...
Yeah, it’s not exactly encouraging when the service drops out at the most critical times!
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