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from the how-many-times-do-we-have-to-pay-for-broadband? dept.
U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has proposed up to $275 billion in infrastructure investment, including investment in broadband:
Hillary Clinton has announced a $250bn plan to build out the United States' broadband infrastructure and ensure that everyone has fast internet access at an affordable price by 2020.
That's the headline figure anyway in her new policy position called "Building Tomorrow's Economy Today." In reality, the presidential candidate has pledged to fund a $25 billion dollar "national infrastructure bank" over five years that will cover all infrastructure improvements for roads, bridges, pipes, and internet network.
That bank will provide "up to an additional $225 billion in federally supported investment," according to the policy paper, by leveraging "the $25 billion in direct loans, loan guarantees, and other forms of credit enhancement."
[...] Interestingly however, even Clinton's $25 billion infrastructure bank idea doesn't appear to have been her own. Democratic rival Bernie Sanders has been talking about the US' lackluster networks for some time, noting that the US comes 16th globally in terms of broadband access, and 12th in terms of average speed, according to the OECD. "Today, businesses, schools, and families in Bucharest, Romania, have access to much faster internet than most of the United States. That is unacceptable and has got to change," Sanders says in his policy position on "rebuilding America."
Interestingly, Sanders pledged the exact same figure as Clinton – $5 billion a year – but solely for internet rollout, rather than all infrastructure needs, through an Act of Congress. "The Rebuild America Act will invest $5 billion a year to expand high-speed broadband networks in under-served and unserved areas, and to boost speeds and capacity all across the country. Internet access is no longer a luxury: it is essential for 21st century commerce, education, telemedicine, and public safety," he said.
DSLReports calls the promises "painfully ambiguous". Other outlets have gravitated to the promises of "smart cities", "free Wi-Fi", "5G networks", and supporting "tomorrow's Internet of Things".
Billions in broadband investment? Hmm, where have I heard that one before?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @12:57AM
I am an American. My house is 35 miles from Manhattan and my interned speed tops out at 5m (that's bit per sec) but averages at 3. I pay $59.95 for it and have no other alternatives.
I am also Russian and my apartment over there has 7 broadband providers. The one I use offers 10-100m. I pay $4 per 20m down guaranteed with fixed IP. The upstream is not guaranteed or throttled - 70m typical, tops at 100m
In case you are wondering, both are cable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @10:57AM
I'm just outside of Springfield, MO. I get roughly 0.64 megabit/sec (yes, barely 80 kilobytes/sec) for $100 a month through my only option. The people extorting me are http://totalhighspeed.net [totalhighspeed.net] where you can verify the prices I pay so you don't feel so bad about what you've got~
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 05 2015, @03:37PM
http://totalhighspeed.com/services/residential [totalhighspeed.com]
That is just fucked. From the FAQ it seems that's because it is "fixed-wireless access" designed to reach your rural ass without getting close.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday December 05 2015, @07:23PM
Invisible hand strikes again!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 07 2015, @04:14PM
That makes me feel a bit better with my Point-to-Point Fixed Wireless that I am getting from Tier One. http://www.tocn.com/residential.html [tocn.com] The service is crap, I am at the edge of the network, any bad weather pretty much ensures that I don't have a connection, but it's better than dial-up / satellite. On bad weather days I use the 5GBs of data that I have with AT&T. Sad thing is that I can get between 1.5 and 4 Megabyte download speeds with AT&T LTE vs about 300K or so with my point-to-point wireless.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"