FCC Funding Aims To Guarantee 100 Mbps Internet Throughout Puerto Rico (engadget.com) 46
On Monday, the FCC's Wireless Competition Board announced that newly allocated financing part of Stage Two of the Uniendo a Puerto Rico fund will ensure that every location across Puerto Rico will have access to broadband internet with download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, with one-third of the territory getting 1 Gbps internet. From a report: The milestone will come from $127.1 million in funding the FCC will provide over 10 years to two firms: Liberty Communications and Claro Puerto Rico. Of that $127.1 million, $71.54 will go to Liberty Communications, which will take care of connecting 43 of Puerto Rico's 78 municipios -- the equivalent to counties on the mainland. The remaining $55.56 million will help Claro build out broadband connections in the other 35 municipios. All told, the approximately 1.2 million places across the territory will get some form of high-speed broadband access through the funding. In a previous stage of Uniendo a Puerto Rico fund announced in June, the FCC allocated $237.9 million through to 2022 to help AT&T, T-Mobile and Claro build out LTE and 5G networks across Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Re:starlink (Score:5, Insightful)
Would it? I don't think it's designed for higher population densities. And at least the orbits used for the satellites so far results in a higher density of coverage farther from the equator, making support for a population of three million even more difficult.
Also, I would like to think that a ground wired system would be able to provide 100Mbps for $50; half the price of Starlink (though that may change).
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Just offering Starlink terminals would solve the problem.
That can work as a complement to fiber deployment but it's just not workable as a replacement for it.
So the earth's surface [wikipedia.org] is 510072000 sq km, and, to take an example for which numbers are readily available, France's surface [wikipedia.org] is 632734 sq km. Even assuming a constellation of 42000 Starlink satellites [wikipedia.org] that would be 42000 * 632734 / 510072000 = 521 satellites to cover the bandwidth needs of France. For comparison there are 4 mobile operators in France and the smallest one has 18367 4G+ antennas [antennesmobiles.fr] with about 40
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Oh? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe if this project succeeds, we could use it as a blueprint for a rollout of rural high-speed internet in the United States!
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Exactery. This is right out of the standard telecom playbook. Promise the world, collect tons of cash, fail to deliver (or even try very hard), get a slap on the wrist if that. Meanwhile telecom execs (and captured regulators, and lawyers) laugh all the way to the bank.
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Since when has Puerto Rico voted GOP?
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And now, less than
Hmmmm.
Re: GOP throwing $ for votes (Score:1)
Our government and people can endorse aliens or your favorite demi-god as president anywhere. It means jack. It is sad that, as a Nation, the US does not know what or who we are and they invaded and took as booty 120 years ago.
We are just some kind of other mexicans or Democrats in potentia to be drowned slowly. We cannot vote for the president or any form of idiot with voting power in the Federal government.
Trump conned a lot of people and the government of puerto rico back in the day when he secured a dea
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Nope.
Puerto Rico is a territory. They have no Senators. Their Representatives don't get to vote (they're not real Representatives per the Constitution). They have zero electoral votes.
Making Puerto Rico happy isn't going to sway the hispanic vote elsewhere significantly.
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Any Puerto Rican that lives in the states, can vote. And many are living in FLORIDA.
And most are STILL connected to Puerto Rico.
In fact, I just googled for number of Puerto Ricans living in Florida and found this. [cnn.com]
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OK. You have a good point.
Rural US (Score:5, Insightful)
I 100% think it's great they're moving To Guarantee 100 Mbps Internet Throughout Puerto Rico.
When can we expect the same guarantee to the Rural US?
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Yep...mainland first.
Why aren't we guaranteeing this for the real states first?
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Because cable/telephone companies in the US don't need anything right now.
Liberty Communications just bought the AT&T Wireless rights (AT&T is leaving PR), and the FCC forced them to sell some stuff. This may be one of those "We are not a monopoly!! We are going to fix things now!!" arrangements they always do. You know like when Charter had agreed to bring its broadband network to 145,000 unserved or underserved homes in New York as a condition of its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and then did n [washingtonpost.com]
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I'm all for PR getting 100Mbps connections throughout the island.
I just want to know when the rest of the Rural America will get similar investments. I know it's going to cost more, but it's not likely going to get cheaper, because manpower likely won't get cheaper to dig a trench for fiber; unless the government is restarting WPA-era work projects.
Re: Rural US (Score:2)
No. The federal goverment needs to keep throwing some kind of bone to puertoricans now and then to keep their separatist movement in check.
Separatist or do you mean Statehood? (Score:1)
Statehood as been voted down in PR more than once.
There are some good benefits for a Commonwealth if you can live with non-voting Congress representation.
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I'm not sure that Rural America is currently in a mode of rejecting all government help. They've gotten 2, very sizeable, bail outs from the US Government currently, and they've been happy to take Government subsidies for decades to prop up the price of various crops. I'm not sure that's true.
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I wish we had that speed throughout Silicon Valley! I'm tired of being in a technological backwater here in San Jose California, and that San Jose Puerto Rico will have better internet.
I've heard this before. (Score:2)
ISPs being given money to improve coverage in the US usually results in the ISP just pocketing the money, and no improved connectivity.
What is being done to prevent that in this case?
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FCC Head's response, "LOOK OVER THERE!" *scurries off*
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Huh, I looked into it a bit more.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/at... [fcc.gov]
Section II.B talks about this. I don't fully understand the terms used or the consequences of it.
Dud they ever fix the electric grid? (Score:2)
I thought that PR was still partially without power. Maybe we should fix that first.
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> I thought that PR was still partially without power. Maybe we should fix that first.
And everything is ridiculously expensive there because of the Jones Act blockade.
I guess the FCC can't do anything about that, though.
Why? (Score:3)
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And why isn't it a state?
Puerto Rico has rejected statehood many times. I believe that they are voting on it again today.
If Puerto Ricans vote to petition to become a state, then perhaps their politicians will petition to become a state (I say perhaps, because they have voted yes a couple times -but the government still did not petition for statehood...)
If Puerto Rico petitions for statehood, Congress would then have to approve.
Here is a recent article on the subject: Puerto Rico Statehood [cnn.com]
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why? (Score:2)
That is great for Puerto Rico but why are they being given priority over the rest of the United States?
Money Stolen Already (Score:1)
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Huh? By my arithmetic, it will be $100 each. Still, that seems like an impossible bargain. FWIW, my ATT wireless Internet gets me at most 3mb/s for $62/month. I would be glad to pay hundreds of $$ to move up to a better service (eg, Starlink).
$100? (Score:2)
1.2M drops for $120M dollars? No way can do they do it for that amount.
Watch for a 10x on money requested.
Um... don't they need some other things first? (Score:2)
How about a non-corrupt-as-fuck local government?
Last I heard they don't have those things. How are you even going to use the internet when you don't even have reliable electricity?
For that matter how do you afford anything let alone internet when you can't find a job? Just checked and even pre-pandemic their unemployment was hovering around 9%, that's not so great.
This all sounds like a scam to me. Someone is going to siphon off that money. Wond
It's not about the money... (Score:2)
Let multiple operators to put cables on poles. Ethernet cable and equipment is dirt cheap and can reach reasonable distances. Let several competitors build out networks. Some smaller will merge, but don't let them all merge together - have at least 3 or 4 operating over the same area. When their growth stabilizes, the presence of fast Internet will open up new business opportunities.
U.S. first? (Score:2)
Maybe you should focus on the continental U.S. first...
And then... (Score:1)
And then, 4 years later, there will be an investigation into how all the funds disappeared and no network got built. PR is a corrupt third world country that for bizarre reasons happens to be part of the US.