If you are out in the country then you would not have any access at all without USF. No one is going to run thirty miles of wire just so your little farmhouse can get telecom services; wireless may fix part of this, but that also requires towers, maintenance, and a whole lot of other services that do not justify the revenue you would provide in compensation. Consider your 128k a gift from the rest of us, which it is, and say "thanks" every now and then...
Consider your 128k a gift from the rest of us, which it is, and say "thanks" every now and then...
I don't think I've ever read anything so... conceited on HN, and that's saying something. The choice to live in a rural area may have been made involuntarily.
How do you mean? I can't see how someone could be forced to live in the middle of nowhere, other than imprisonment.
I believe that nearly any person living in a rural area could move to a more populated area, if they desired.
What if you want to be a stereotypical farmer, on a farm 50 miles from any city? That is your choice. However, one side effect of that choice is that you have to live with dialup Internet access. Just take that into account when making your decision.
Having inadequate money to move to a city or suburb or get an education, being born into a rural family with inadequate money to move or become educated, etc.
Then why is everyone still paying for universal access, if the farmer is using a line installed in 1930? If it cost $10k to run that line in today's money, they're making out like bandits.
> Consider your 128k a gift from the rest of us, which it is, and say "thanks" every now and then...
From one city-dweller to another: give me a break. Did it ever occur to you that we city-dwellers benefit from having people living in rural areas? These are the people who grow our food, work in our mines, generate our electricity, and so on. And when do you plan to thank them for all the services of ours that they pay for? Think: preventing acts of terrorism, securing ports, virtually every other telecom law?
The point, of course, is that, as common members of a society, we all pay to support one another in various ways. Such a network of mutual support is what makes us a community and not just a swath of land with a border around it. There's no room for smug demands for gratitude.
