...my very rural area, putting down fiber optic cable for high speed internet. I’ve been wondering with all the crumbling infrastructure across the country, why they seem so eager for everyone to “have access to high speed internet”. They’ve been acting like it’s a basic human right that no one should be without.
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Went thru that in my previous locations. Finally got fiber optic when a regional co-op got a Federal grant. We paid some pricey access fees and the monthly bills were somewhat higher than DSL.
I know someone who has made a lifetime career (at least 30 years, so far) supervising crews that do the installation of these systems. Takes a long time in often challenging outdoor conditions. Many near-inaccessible places with rocky soil, swampy soil, mountains, etc and many miles needed. Many workers aging out, but I imagine it’s attractive to laid-off drillers/pipeline workers.
Now I live in a thinly-populated area that so far is not hot to get those Federal grants. Our DSL allows 90MBps download and it is not noticeably different than the fiber optic. I suppose gamers demand more, plus high upload speeds.
I believe most people out here use their phone for internet. I know the vacationers do. So, less demand on the system as a whole.
However, my $79 comm bill just rose by nearly $10. That may also reflect some local depopulation and less travel/tourism/2nd home owners...idk, just guessing. We do have one new home built over the past year in the neighborhood. Our immediate neighbors are summer, hunting and fishing season folks and they have not been visiting....some since Thanksgiving. The third-side neighbor cleared their land, brought in a travel trailer and have done nothing else in 2 years. Probably supply/price issues. They’ve visited maybe 2x since Thanksgiving, for weekends.
I hope this area does not change for the time I have left. The County reorganized to save money and cut personnel and when valuations rose, they reduced the mil rate. The local paper is locally owned and not, so far, swallowed by the regional aggregators. It’s quiet, boring and was logging country, so mostly flat. Our parcel is on Old Glacial Lake Wisconsin, meaning 1” of thin, acid (pine & oak barren) topsoil over sand. East are bogs. Rock formations are privately owned. State parks are under Blue governor control. Two narrow lakes for fishermen and boating with resorts and pricey subdivisions. Little industry. Row crops need lots of fertilizer and irrigation. Absent some magnet for the blue-haired hipsters, we hope to remain independent and isolated for the foreseeable future.
We are 5 miles from a town with shopping & 25 miles from a city with more services. It has turned out to be a decent compromise between convenience and isolation.
They need high speed for the Great Reset. Also 5G for the control aspect. That’s my personal opinion.