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For decades, people in the US have been given a song and dance by the telecoms about how tax cuts, surcharges, and a long list of other expenses are necessary for telecoms to "invest" in infrastructure. The concessions are granted again and again, but the investments are never actually made. In all, US taxpayers have paid $400 Billion in taxes and Internet surcharges for fiber optic upgrades that never happened.
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Americans Taxed $400 Billion For Fiber Optic Internet That Doesn’t Exist
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For recreational use only.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday December 05 2017, @12:42AM (6 children)
But is any of it true?
Was the tax collected 400 billion? Where's the proof.
Was the tax turned in to the Government or retained by telcos? Where's the proof?
Was there No Fiber built? Seems you can get fiber to the home in lots of places [broadbandnow.com].
Just because there is no fiber to your house does not mean your internet doesn't travel on fiber.
My provider's nearest fiber neighborhood distribution center is 2 miles from my house. Its coax from there to me.
But boy it was a great nerd rage article.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 05 2017, @01:15AM (1 child)
We've had a mostly fiber internet since the great glass installation boom in the very early 2000s, fiber is where all the dot com money went after the dot com bubble burst.
As you say, speed of delivery is adequate (could of course always be better), but the real challenge is in the service providers - who, in truth, have improved dramatically in the last 20 years, but still suck mightily.
And I think the rage-flare is against the thought that these service providers continue to benefit from this subsidy while still sucking mightily.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @02:16AM
Inquiring minds want to know - do they suck just mightily or Buzzard Mightily?
(Score: 2) by Kymation on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:11AM (2 children)
My current internet connection is about the same as parent's. However CenturyLink is busy stringing fiber all over town, with a completion date sometime in January. When they get the fiber in I'll have fiber to my house and Gigabit internet.
I live in a small town (pop 10k or so) at the back end of nowhere, so I always thought I would be the last in the country to get decent speeds. So what's really going on with Internet providers? I have no idea.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:33AM (1 child)
CenturyLink here too... 20 miles down the way, a wide spot in the road has fiber for $40/mo. Here close to town, I limp along on (choice of one) 2Mbit DSL for $50/mo. That fiber cable is right across the highway from me, and might as well be on Mars.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @07:50AM
Very similar to me. Except fiber line runs across the front lawn. And my only internet access at home is wireless 3Mbps (peak), because they like to pound you in the ass with bills.
So yeah, money well spent.
(Score: 2) by ese002 on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:20AM
True, but you can not get fiber in a lot more places. It is a big country. Even if only a tiny fraction of neighborhoods have fiber you can still generate an impressive looking list.
Oh yes, and fiber that is two miles from your house is fiber that doesn't go to your house. I live in Silicon Valley. There is loads of fiber around in all the office parks. Comcast and AT&T bring fiber to the neighborhoods. Negligible fiber is actually connected to people's homes.