Universal Broadband Plan Calls For $44 Billion 414
Andy King writes "The new Obama administration has pledged to deploy next-generation broadband to every community in America, but have offered few specifics. The Free Press have published a specific plan to accomplish broadband for all." I'm not sure which will be the bigger headache when my internet breaks: waiting in line at the new government internet office, or waiting on hold for cable tech support.
Re:Amendment X (Score:2, Informative)
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
Interstate and foreign commercial enterprise is very literally what the internet is now meant to achieve. These days, people purchase so many products and conduct so many transactions across state lines through the web that any specific area without the infrastructure to get broadband access becomes handicapped, as they are without the ability to effectively move their services online. I will admit this is not a perfect fit in a grammatical sense, BUT the internet did not exist when the constitution was written, so a certain evolution of the statement's meaning is to be expected.
Re:I'll sue ya! (Score:5, Informative)
Whew !
I thought they were gonna ask for another 200 billion !
http://www.tispa.org/node/14 [tispa.org]
This is a deal !
Re:Comca$t to raise rates by $44 billion (Score:3, Informative)
Well, comcast has about 14.7 million broadband subscribers so expect a rate hike of about 250 a month or 2900 a year in order to increase to another 44 billion.
Re:Not understanding and lashing out is l33t (Score:1, Informative)
Wait - what? How will this be any different than what happened during the dot-com bubble? Government essentially paid ISPs billions to expand the infrastructure - guess what, the companies took that money gladly and returned nothing.
There better be some good management of the funds to guarantee American tax payers don't get screwed again (which I'm hoping is a possibility with Obama in charge).
Re:Not understanding and lashing out is l33t (Score:1, Informative)
We've already given broadband companies $200 Billion and they failed miserably. [pbs.org]
Seriously, fuck those companies. We built the Hoover Dam, the Interstate System, and the Space Shuttle. There is no way we can't build the best fiber-optic system in the world under the right leadership.