Posted on 10/05/2024 4:36:41 AM PDT by karpov
Government makes many promises, the Biden Administration more than most. Results are another story. For the latest example of the latter, consider the “internet for all” plan that President Biden tapped Kamala Harris to lead. Fiasco is the word for it.
The 2021 infrastructure law included $42.5 billion for states to expand broadband to “unserved,” mostly rural, communities. Three years later, ground hasn’t been broken on a single project. The Administration recently said construction won’t start until next year at the earliest, meaning many projects won’t be up and running until the end of the decade.
Blame the Administration’s political regulations. States must submit plans to the Commerce Department about how they’ll use the funds and their bidding process for providers. Commerce has piled on mandates that are nowhere in the law and has rejected state plans that don’t advance progressive goals.
Take how the Administration is forcing providers to subsidize service for low-income customers. Commerce required that Virginia revise its plan so bidders had to offer a specified “affordable” price. This is rate regulation.
Brent Christensen of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance recently reported that none of his trade group’s 70 or so members plan to bid for federal grants because of the rate rules and other burdens. “To put those obligations on small rural providers is a hell of a roadblock,” he said. “Most of our members are small and can’t afford to offer a low-cost option.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Our government is a POS.
It would be cheaper to help them with Starlink accounts but that would benefit Elon Musk. Silly me.
“Progressives” decision process:
1) Send all info and everything involved, to DEI
2) See Step 1
In 2010 more or less puff put out 52 billion vote garner get moneys to install fiber to only the (more needy?
Some say the equipment hook up and tutelage was also thrown in the deal
Now the electric coop from a county over is white flagging a lot.
Wonder what deals we got for our money this time.
No questions about it, the Feds could subsidize the purchase of equipment and negotiate a bargain rate for the monthly fee and for 42.5 billion dollars, you could outfit most of rural America with high-speed internet and have it all completed in a year or less.
From the article:
“The Administration has also stipulated hiring preferences for “underrepresented” groups, including “aging individuals,” prisoners, racial, religious and ethnic minorities, “Indigenous and Native American persons,” “LGBTQI+ persons,” and “persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.”
Good luck trying to find “underrepresented” hard-hats in Montana.”
Always remember the two prime laws of Democrats/left/commies:
1. Their only standard is a double standard.
2. Everything they touch turns to excrement.
The Feds had already given Starlink millions of dollars just to service rural areas but then yanked it back a couple of years ago before they started.
.
Not to worry. The DemonicRats will still spend the money.
Not for Deep State...
Elon Musk and those getting his Starlink system installed for people in the Helene ravaged areas, has connected more rural people to the internet in the past 4 days than Harris has in the past 4 years. That’s just a fact.
STARLINK, Problem Solved
The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (REA), enacted on
May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation
of electrical distribution systems
**********
Do people think how electrical power was provided to the
rural areas back in the day?
Our government is a POS.
**********
May be so but how did they get into office?
Popular vote in a lot of sectors.
May be so but how did they get into office?
Popular vote in a lot of sectors.
GIGO
Maybe some satellite interests don’t want the competition?
There were small ISPs in rural areas doing interesting stuff with Point-to-Multipoint wireless equipment. I’m not seeing much out of them lately, I think because the big boys who were politically connected were too much of a threat, with all this money sloshing around.
This article is a great illustration of the perverse incentives at work in government.
The government collects taxes and appropriates money for projects.
However the best way for the bureaucrats to accumulate power is to impede the progress of those projects.
There is little or no incentive for the bureaucrats to advance the goals set by the legislature.
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