Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Rural Americans Hurt by New FCC Rule
Townhall.com ^ | November 5, 2017 | Steve Sherman

Posted on 11/05/2017 8:13:50 AM PST by Kaslin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-103 next last
To: pierrem15

Making a big monopoly bigger. Yeah, always works out well for the little guy.


41 posted on 11/05/2017 9:45:07 AM PST by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Savage Rider

The article is awful. I tried ignoring the manipulative premise smuggling and emotional slanting to no avail. The core argument is so obtuse I wonder if there is any baby in all that bath water. It certainly isn’t convincing.


42 posted on 11/05/2017 9:50:46 AM PST by sparklite2 (-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

WTH is a “rural” voter?


43 posted on 11/05/2017 9:55:16 AM PST by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Savage Rider

Ignore Townhall- another rat hole infested with NeverTrumpers.


44 posted on 11/05/2017 9:58:10 AM PST by ohioman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Looks like Town Hall AND MSM is coming out with a ‘hit piece’ every day, explaining why people who voted for PDT are a bunch of idiots and instead of broadbrushing they are isolating small groups so they can make it seem ‘worse’ than it is.

Starting with PDT and his (unhealthy) two scoops of ice cream - which managed to alienate the PRO & CON ice cream people, further driving the class wedge in place.

‘’NOT so quotable’’

PRESIDENT Trump was seen coming out of a stall in a rest room and praising the ‘toilet paper’ as being soft and the smartness of the use of air blowers to dry ones hands.

REBUT::: Toilet paper users are up in arms that PRESIDENT Trump endorsed brand X toilet paper, the manufacturers of other brands of toilet paper are saying that PRESIDENT Trump is unfairly targeting them, while the opponents of air dryers are claiming PRESIDENT Trump is costing jobs in the paper industry as the use of paper towels is down because of the air dryers AND the Republicans are demanding a fast track for some sort of air dryer to replace toilet paper.....

And the beat goes on....

(As to the paper towels, one of the ‘best’ things to do in a public rest area while driving through and using the facility, is to splash cold water on your face which now FORCES one to go out in public with a wet face.)

Come ON, HOP ABOARD, the band wagon is just loading up. <: <:


45 posted on 11/05/2017 10:04:22 AM PST by xrmusn ((6/98)""If the earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything over the edge by now")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blue House Sue

I’m rural and don’t hate Trump. I had a land line (POTS) that was so bad I couldn’t even use dial-up internet. Even cellular coverage is unreliable out here. Exede satellite broadband was the answer for me and it covers the entire continental USA.
A local company put up a WiFi tower in my vicinity and my internet got a lot faster and cheaper. But I refuse to listen to a bunch of whiners when satellite broadband is available to them.


46 posted on 11/05/2017 10:06:01 AM PST by Dalberg-Acton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: hadaclueonce
Pocatello is a fairly small city. I use a WiMax connection at 7 Mbps up / 15 Mbps down with a roof top antenna. It's better than any DSL option. The local cable internet service makes claims a 50 Mbps, but often fails to deliver. I'm waiting on a small firm in town installing TruFiber. It puts a bi-directional 1 Gbps fiber optic right to your premises. That would be a big improvement and would be less temperamental than the dish on the roof. Filling the dish with snow or gusty winds can degrade the signal path.
47 posted on 11/05/2017 10:09:53 AM PST by Myrddin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

With broadband & cell phone service becoming, via regulation, a mere public utility, telecoms seek profits by other means as well as reducing “costs” by reducing competition. One of the ways of cutting off opposition has not been the traditional way of providing a service at less cost to consumers, but cutting off competitors access to spectrum with which to compete.

And, many of the most recent of the telecoms purchase of spectrum has NOT been to “build-out” but merely to stock up on their exclusive right to additional spectrum, that they then just sit on.

Now they want the rules to expand how long they can get away with just sitting on it. You can imagine, just like patents, they will be back to lobby that the law extend those squatters rights even more in the future.

For me, a Conservative position on the public sale of spectrum would require (a) plans for using that spectrum that would start to get implemented as soon as the spectrum was acquired, and (b) a three year time limit for those plans to commence. If the plans for using that spectrum didn’t commence within 36 months, the spectrum would go back into the lots available at the next auction and they’d get no more than that auction offered.

I do not think hoarding spectrum is in the public interest and is certainly counter-productive to true competition.


48 posted on 11/05/2017 10:25:24 AM PST by Wuli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Safetgiver

Um...a voter who lives in a rural area?


49 posted on 11/05/2017 10:28:12 AM PST by ctdonath2 (It's not "white privilege", it's "Puritan work ethic". Behavior begets consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: ctdonath2

Define rural by the Government this decade. Somebody who doesn’t live on 4th and Broadway? Lives outside of L.A? I live in a borough 85 miles from Philly and have been called ‘rural’ on many polls, questionnaires etc. Be careful. What YOU think is NOT what they are angling at.


50 posted on 11/05/2017 10:39:26 AM PST by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Shady

As I understand the local office rule, too many small niche stations were being put out of business because they couldn’t afford a local office for the revenue they could generate. With a rule change, if someone can find a way to broadcast German polka, Vietnamese music and a current news show about African politics, under the umbrella of one office, maybe these small listener stations can succeed.


51 posted on 11/05/2017 10:48:13 AM PST by Savage Rider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Wuli

They had that rule saying use it or lose it with the spectrum and it resulted in a bubble of telecom equipment manufacturers that charged too much that the service operators nearly all went bankrupt. There has to be a financial plan to make deploying new technology and services to ensure that these companies will be on going concerns.


52 posted on 11/05/2017 11:02:26 AM PST by dila813 (Voting for Trump to Punish Trumpets!Goo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Dalberg-Acton

>>>Exede satellite broadband was the answer for me and it covers the entire continental USA... A local company put up a WiFi tower in my vicinity and my internet got a lot faster and cheaper. But I refuse to listen to a bunch of whiners when satellite broadband is available to them.<<<

I’m writing this using Exede from the center of Alaska, about 280 miles from the road, and listening to music on one of those Dish satellite channels. A private company, GCI, has been threatening to connect us with 4G and WiFi by actually building a tower, but it has never operated since it was built two years ago. Of course our Exede bill is very high compared to Lower 48 costs, just like everything else (except moose and salmon).

I also noticed the difference in attitude between the traditional “Let’s invent something that solves this problem” to a more passive “We need more money and help from the government bureaucrats.”

The attitude is reversed from the government side. I was thinking about the Cumberland Road, the Erie Canal, the Homestead Act, the Interstate Highway System, and how sometimes the state can create infrastructure for the purposes of economic growth and prosperity. But the gist of the article focuses on the amount of money and influence in urban area, and I sensed redistribution of wealth as a theme. Not the same as the building a dam.

The other thing that’s missing in the article is an understanding of what it’s like to live in rural America. It’s not all privation. But I know from the get-go that some things will be missing from my life (traffic, Starbucks), and some things will be much more expensive. Maybe you can do without, or make the uncomfortable choice to move, as I had to when I was broke and younger. Shoulder the burden while slowly building your life.

Yeah, I agree. A whining diatribe.


53 posted on 11/05/2017 11:05:30 AM PST by redpoll
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: SubMareener

It’s not a monopoly in terms of ISP’s.


54 posted on 11/05/2017 11:06:35 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Safetgiver
One that lives in the county, obvious,
55 posted on 11/05/2017 11:18:45 AM PST by Kaslin (Politicians are not born; they are excreted -Civilibus nati sunt; sunt excernitur. (Cicero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Nifster

No, but obviously you are.


56 posted on 11/05/2017 11:20:45 AM PST by Kaslin (Politicians are not born; they are excreted -Civilibus nati sunt; sunt excernitur. (Cicero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Kickass Conservative

I liked that show. It was much funnier that that crap they are showing now


57 posted on 11/05/2017 11:24:10 AM PST by Kaslin (Politicians are not born; they are excreted -Civilibus nati sunt; sunt excernitur. (Cicero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: redpoll
I live in Rural East Tennessee. Lots of high ridges running northeast by southwest. I now use Exede as well. I've had them two weeks and a happy customer. Not even Hughesnet could get me service due to line of sight issue dealing with a ridge and high trees. But Exede's bird is located a little higher angle and they were able to get me service.

Satellite serves my TV {Direct} and internet use well. I had been stuck using dial up modem service ISP's since 1998 until Exede. My Verizon cell service at 3G was very hit and miss as far as internet use went. I live pretty high up a ridge BTW.

58 posted on 11/05/2017 11:24:22 AM PST by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: dila813

“They had that rule saying use it or lose it with the spectrum and it resulted in a bubble of telecom equipment manufacturers that charged too much that the service operators nearly all went bankrupt.”

I am not saying “use it or lose it”. That would put all the past errors that permitting hoarding that is already taking place to land back in the market. There should be additional rules relative to that spectrum.

What should result, without ready and able plans to use spectrum, is fewer bidders and lower prices paid at the auctions. I doubt it will result in a “bubble” market for equipment. With the slow level of present build-out we have a slump in the domestic equipment market - down -4.8% 2012-2016.


59 posted on 11/05/2017 11:30:54 AM PST by Wuli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: pierrem15

Just as Standard Oil wasn’t really a monopoly before they started buying up gas stations. ;-)


60 posted on 11/05/2017 11:39:44 AM PST by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-103 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson