Re: Muni Fiber

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman () meetinghouse net>]

Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: joshua.klubi () gmail com [mailto:joshua.klubi () gmail com]
> >
> > But they also deserve to have or enjoy the benefits that comes with
> > living in the big cities
>
> I grew up in a rural area served by dialup for the first 15 years of my life, so please don't misunderstand what I'm about 
> to say.  No, they don't.
>
> Living in a rural area is a different set of value propositions than living in the Big City, and we shouldn't pretend 
> otherwise.  Do people living in the big cities reap the benefits of living in the country?  No ambient noise, no air pollution, 
> low crime rates, neighbors you know and can trust your children with?  No, they don't.
>
> That isn't to say that broadband technology won't (or shouldn't) find ways of serving people in rural areas with increasingly usable levels 
> of throughput while decreasing jitter and loss; it already is (and should), and the situation is constantly improving.  But I think it's a mistake to 
> say that people who have made the decision to live in the Big City should expect to enjoy the same benefits as people who have made the decision to live 
> in rural towns, and vice versa.  They'll never be the same, and unless I'm very much mistaken, that's actually OK.

There's truth to what you say, but there is another side that often gets 
missed.  The rational for universal telephone service isn't just that 
rural residents need access, but that folks in denser areas need to be 
able to reach them - the value of a network connection lies not only in 
who can reach you, but who you can reach.

A similar argument applies to broadband.  In today's economy, supply 
chains are spread all across the map - extending networks into rural 
areas, is not just for the benefit of those who live in those rural areas.

Miles Fidelman

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra