Broadband Penetration Still Weak
- 6
- Add a Comment
Frankly I find the idea behind this article to be completely insane. Despite promise after promise, I have yet to really see the kind of penetration in more rural areas where broadband remains completely absent. I do not point the fault at any one single ISP mind you. Instead, I would say that due to the nature of their business, most ISPs providing Broadband access simply will not justify the expense of access where potential users are not painfully evident.
It’s a sad fact that is difficult to deny. Even worse is me understanding where they are coming from. Because they are not a utility (here in the States at least), there will likely never truly be the kind access provisions being described in the article linked above. The very idea is utter nonsense.
So why do these “feel good” articles seemly continue to surface every so often? Apparently to ensure that the masses are feeling like we are keeping up with the rest of the world. Because the US is not nessarly all that dense in all of its population centers outside of the coastal areas, it just seems like the dream of broadband for some is only to be a dream and never a reality.
6 Comments
General George
July 25th, 2008
at 8:25am
Here in rural central Iowa broadband is nonexistant. We live a couple of miles outside a small town that does have broadband and about twenty air miles from the capital city. Quest advertises constantly in the local papers about their great broadband coverage but will not even consider covering our area. The dial up is unbelieveably slow. I think it should be required for the companys that want to make money on providing broadband services be required to offer them to everyone in their area of coverage and at the same price.
Ajaxn2
July 25th, 2008
at 8:33am
It is so true i live in East TX and the nearest DSL or cable connection is 300 yard from the begining of my subdivision and yet neither the telco nor cable co find it feasible to enter into the subdivision. I have talked to a few wifi companies here and they are working on trying to reach me but it has been almost 8 months and they still cant seem to reach us. I am at the point where i am going to start my own WISP and service my area!
Linda Gleisser
July 25th, 2008
at 12:55pm
2012 was mentioned. Isn’t this when the Mayan calendar ends? Maybe the article was right after all…
Matt Wilkinson
July 25th, 2008
at 3:26pm
Seriously. What kind of Kool Aid are these Gartner guys drinking? That’s ambitious, even for Gartner. That woud require the Big Telco’s, the Big CableCo’s and other Internet Infrastructures providers to forgo major profits to sink money into overhauling and building out a new (and NOT based on Copper, thank you very much).
David Brown
July 25th, 2008
at 5:42pm
I find it ironic that Canada which is more sparsely populated then the US will have bigger penetration.
Aquaadverse
July 26th, 2008
at 2:01pm
Have access to the southern sky? does a cell phone work?
Then you probably have access to broadband. The problem is with people who choose to not put up with the drawbacks of living in cities, or like living on large parcels of land, expecting to have the benefits of costs being lower because of density. I would not like another surcharge on my utility bill.