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The Internet Government The Almighty Buck

Congress Lets Broadband Funding Run Out, Ending $30 Low-Income Discounts (arstechnica.com) 129

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission chair today made a final plea to Congress, asking for money to continue a broadband-affordability program that gave out its last round of $30 discounts to people with low incomes in April. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has lowered monthly Internet bills for people who qualify for benefits, but Congress allowed funding to run out. People may receive up to $14 in May if their ISP opted into offering a partial discount during the program's final month. After that there will be no financial help for the 23 million households enrolled in the program.

"Additional funding from Congress is the only near-term solution for keeping the ACP going," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a letter to members of Congress today. "If additional funding is not promptly appropriated, the one in six households nationwide that rely on this program will face rising bills and increasing disconnection. In fact, according to our survey of ACP beneficiaries, 77 percent of participating households report that losing this benefit would disrupt their service by making them change their plan or lead to them dropping Internet service entirely." The ACP started with $14.2 billion allocated by Congress in late 2021. The $30 monthly ACP benefit replaced the previous $50 monthly subsidy from the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program.

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Congress Lets Broadband Funding Run Out, Ending $30 Low-Income Discounts

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  • Gaza Bombs Only (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:14PM (#64440542) Homepage Journal

    Sorry - out of money to help out Americans.

    Congress only funds more important people.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by kellin ( 28417 )

      Beat me to it, basically. America, where funding wars is more important than funding America.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by saloomy ( 2817221 )
        Lets just return tax money, we don't need to spend 1/3 of our GDP through the federal government.
        • It may not even be needed. If these people already have connectivity, I think the ISPs are more likely to offer lower priced services, otherwise they're just leaving money on the table. Even at lower prices, running a last mile ISP is generally highly profitable.

          • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

            Internet should be provided for free by local governments, just like the roads and sidewalks.

            This dramatically lowers the cost since no billing department is needed, and much of the connectivity can be through neighborhood hotspots rather than running a cable to each house.

            The (minimal) cost is tacked onto your property tax bill.

            Over 400 cities in America already have municipal Internet. Costs are lower, and satisfaction is higher.

            • Meh, I don't view internet connectivity as some kind of inalienable right.

              Municipal fiber networks tend to work well though, but I like the model where they just provide the last mile and you get to choose your own backbone service, and the ISP in-turn reimburses the municipality for upkeep costs. Not only does that keep the lowest cost, but that offers several advantages, including eliminating the need of the municipality to neither acquire IP address space, provide technical support services, nor provide

              • Well, you can't push govt services online unless you ensure that everyone has access to them & that means feasible, convenient internet access for everyone. Personally, I'd do it through public libraries, which have the staff on hand to help those who can't afford sufficient hardware or aren't particularly interwebs pipes savvy. They're also great community hubs, places to hold local meetings, set up social & academic groups, find out about civil & legal matters... You never know, some people mi
                • Well, you can't push govt services online unless you ensure that everyone has access to them & that means feasible, convenient internet access for everyone. Personally, I'd do it through public libraries

                  Sounds like you answered your own question.

                  But that'd mean keeping public libraries open & probably opening more in order to serve more areas.

                  Why? You're basically proposing closing down customer facing government offices that can be adequately replaced with a website. E.g. some people can visit the library instead of the unemployment office, and the rest that needed it can do it from home. If anything, that would likely require fewer government offices overall.

              • by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Thursday May 02, 2024 @07:35AM (#64441742)

                Yeah. The last mile thing is really the best way to keep up with tech. We did that in australia with the NBN and other than political sabotage by the former conservative govt trying to downgrade it from fibre to DSL (which ended up costing more than fibre and we just had to rip it out anyway. Why people think conservatives are somehow better financial managers will always be beyond me, it just flies in the face of the evidence) but despite the setbacks, it got us from ADSL to a network that MOSTLY delivers 1GB fibre and in some circumstances 10GB although due to the "We are a giant desert the size of america" factor some places still havent had that upgrade yet.

                I think its a good model. It protects competition by preventing last mile monopolies while ensuring that everyone actually gets a connection.

              • by sjames ( 1099 )

                Government services are supplied through the internet now. Many schools post homework on the internet and require students to use it. The kids DO have a right to public education. You might recall a spot of trouble we had in 2020 where internet based teleconferencing became the only way to attend school, for example. You can argue all you want about how effective that was, but since it was the only option at the time, it would be hard to argue that it wasn't better than nothing. Are you prepared to fund th

              • Roads, electricity, emergency services and municipal water aren't inalienable rights either? I think you've gone orthogonal to the point. Providing communal services is the point of founding a city.
                • Roads, electricity, emergency services and municipal water aren't inalienable rights either?

                  No, they're not.
                  - Roads are just roads. Besides, where I live (California) the government obviously doesn't think people have a right to them or else they'd actually maintain them.
                  - What happens if you don't pay your water bill?
                  - What happens if you don't pay your electricity bill? And if electricity is an inalienable right, then are the devices that use them inalienable as well? If not, then what's the point? Do you have the right to refrigerator with icemaker and water dispenser as well as a microwave ove

                  • I wasn't saying that roads etc were inalienable rights, I was pointing out that municipal infrastructure includes primarily things that aren't inalienable rights.
              • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

                Meh, I don't view internet connectivity as some kind of inalienable right.

                Well, given these are low income people, how do you expect them to do things like get a job, get an education, or even just try to improve themselves?

                Most minimum wage jobs cannot be applied to in person these days - you must go online to apply on their job portal. Heck, most jobs require online application. Oh, you can get a few stores still taking paper applications, but they're generally the smaller ones

                If you want to apply for gov

            • Generally speaking in the U.S., governments do not provide roads and sidewalks in neighborhoods. Property developers do, and in most cases the governments or HOA's maintain them.

          • by Amouth ( 879122 )

            Zero chance they will start out there - they will:

            1) keep billing at current rate
            2) as people leave, sell them the old rate as a limited retainment offer (then slap them with full costs in 6 months)
            3) for those that don't cancel - milk the rate pulling it from their cashflow
            4) for those that don't cancel & fail to pay - let them fall behind and charge late fees - and an eventually charge them a disconnect fee for failure to pay - then send it to collections - and write off the difference as a business e

        • by necro81 ( 917438 )

          Lets just return tax money, we don't need to spend 1/3 of our GDP through the federal government.

          Perhaps you're engaging in hyperbole just to make a point. But in fact federal spending is not 1/3 of GDP; it's under 1/4 [google.com]. Still a lot.

        • by whitroth ( 9367 )

          Looked outside your echo chamber recently? The US federal budget is $6.1T, while GDP is over $24T

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Plenty of time for looking at Hunter's dick pics https://www.thedailybeast.com/... [thedailybeast.com]

      Also lots of time for trying to impeach Biden for "crimes" while in the same breath trying to argue for Trump being immune from, crimes?.

    • Congress doesn't like residents. I likes voters in their own party the most, which means they still dislike them overall. They like voters from other parties less than that. They like swing voters not much at all (wishy washy unpredictable masses). They like non-voting citzens very low indeed. And legal non-citizen residents they often feel must be deported to somewhere in the Antarctic if only it was inexpensive to do so. Expecting congress to do something good for the people in the nation is somethi

    • by Moryath ( 553296 )
      Remember folks, "bill_mcgonigle" is a shit eating Genocidal Hitler Heiling Nazi Retard.
    • by jmccue ( 834797 )
      True, but due to the amount of $ sent to the cable industry by Congress, broadband should be free. These companies used that funding for bonuses and stock buy-backs, not for improving service which it was suppose to me used for.
  • Oh crap! People might have to cut back on their cigaweed, or cook 2 meals a month at home instead of shopping at McD's all the time, to afford their TikToks and Instagrams! Will the atrocities never cease?!? What if they have to cancel one of their streaming services to pay for the internet connection?

    Broadband at home is not a right, or even really a necessity. It's really helpful sometimes, yes, but... public libraries have it. Pretty much everyone (in the US) has a phone that has it now. And if the

    • by Moryath ( 553296 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:35PM (#64440586)

      Broadband is the modern equivalent of having a telephone line. It's a necessity for seeking employment, receiving communications, sending communications.

      I've known a lot of poor people. The vast majority of them aren't poor because things cost so much, they're poor because they make poor choices.

      I've known a lot of shitty fucking lying-ass crap silver spoon retards like you who never worked an honest day in their lives, and my advice to you is the same: shove it WAY up your inbred, entitled fucking ass. BEING POOR IS EXPENSIVE. Our society is LITTERED with traps designed to make it so that the poor can never "make better choices." [mercyhousing.org]

      • It's easy to see it only one way, when it's both. I think it's about hope.

        If someone never has enough to succeed, they stop seeing the utility in frugality. Why save when you can't even make it to the next pay? Then it snowballs - why bother brown-bagging it, just go to McD's and save the hassle. You're broke anyway, right?

        The amount of sacrifice required for someone without money or education to catch up with someone who has them is more than any of us with money would likely be willing to make... but

        • by Moryath ( 553296 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:44PM (#64440612)

          The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. [terrypratchett.com]

          Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

          But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

          -Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

        • by Moryath ( 553296 )

          Then it snowballs - why bother brown-bagging it, just go to McD's and save the hassle.

          Real easy for someone to say "why don't they brown bag it" without asking if they EVEN HAVE ACCESS TO A WORKING REFRIGERATOR btw... just a thought...

          • That's a whole other level of poverty, but if you can buy a loaf of bread and a jar of jam at a Walmart, you should be good for a week's worth of lunches without a fridge. And water's better for you. If you're too poor for that, you'd better have a farm plot and access to a clean stream or you're going to die. Then again, that's 'rural poor'. In a city you don't even have those options, so below a certain threshold it's beg or die.

            When I was (relatively) poor, I spent a lot more on day-to-day stuff than

      • Trying to help. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 )

        I am not trolling, I am trying to share some wisdom.

        That link you posted kept talking about people making minimum wage. About 15 k per year. But here is a list [indeed.com] of 25 jobs that pay 50k per year and do not require a degree.

        Not everybody is in a position to get one of these jobs. Everybody's story is different. But certainly SOME working adults who are only making minimum wage could instead be working one of these jobs. For them, their lack of income is a poor choice that they are making.

        Absolutely nobody

        • If all the minimum wage workers get all those 50K jobs, who's going to do all those minimum wage jobs?

          For the vast majority, being poor isn't a choice. In your case, being an arsehole is.
          • Interesting. I am an arsehole for pointing out that there are options? I am an arsehole for encouraging people to break out of a victim mentality that is harming them? I am an arsehole despite the fact that I carefully qualified with statements like "Not everybody is in a position to get one of these jobs?"

            Trying to help does not make one an arsehole. However, deliberately misinterpreting someone else's post, so you can then criticize it based on things it doesn't claim, might. For example, you asked "

    • by Moryath ( 553296 )
      Anyone else noticed how Nazi Shit Crap Account "FuegoFuerte" hasn't posted in 2+ years, but suddenly showed back up? I smell a shitty-ass botfarm owner.
    • by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @08:05PM (#64440672)

      I've known a lot of poor people. The vast majority of them aren't poor because things cost so much, they're poor because they make poor choices.

      You clearly don't know a lot of poor people.

      I live in a community in the middle of nowhere Tennessee where this program has been a massive boon.

      They are not eating McDonald's because there is none here. They are not worried about their TikToks and Instagrams because they are trying to get by. What the Internet has allowed them to do is gain access to futures markets, connect with farming resources that previously did not have, have access to extension offices for programs they didn't even know exist, and so on. These people live on such thin margins, the "basic Internet" plan to gain access to those things is not something they can just idly enter into a year long contract. The "basic cable" plan doesn't even exist because there isn't even "cable" in this area. We have our local co-op fiber internet that is ran by our community, but ACP funds greatly helped secure those who weren't even aware that the Internet could help them. Now that some of these folks have seen what's possible, now that they've had access to markets that their beatup truck couldn't get them out to, they stand to lose that access. In all of your hateful diatribe, you failed to mention a single point that sounded reasonable. You haven't the slightest clue.

      Your comment is quite possibly the most uneducated thing I have seen to date on Slashdot. You should go to Reddit or Facebook or something with that kind of quality comment.

      And yes, the community is coming together for some of them in the loss of ACP. But the fact that Congress let this slip because "not enough Republicans" would sign on to it, even though it would have passed with Democrats is a stupid reason for why we cannot use some modicum of Federal dollars to help out fellow Americans. Americans that likely put food in your grocery store you want everyone to go buy food at you goddamn idiot. Americans that I'm pretty sure who have worked harder in a single day of their life than you ever will in your entire spiteful pitiful fucking life.

      • You think providing access to futures markets to poor people will help lift them out of poverty?

        • I think it is providing them something that they did not previously have access to before. And that providing many avenues and not fewer is something that we should collectively strive for in many various domains.

      • But those farmers voted for those people.  Those farmers wanted less government hand out so they can pay less taxes.  The farmers you are trying to get sympathy for are not the ones using this program and they are certainly not poor.  The government made sure of that through heavy farm subsidies and backing crop insurance. It's the nonfarmers that live in the rural area that are getting hit. 
      • Is it possible that you're both actually correct to a certain degree, and "the poor" isn't a monolithic group that either of you can speak about as a whole with any authority, because there's actually a hundred different scenarios or more for why people are poor?

        Oh, and for context, I grew up upper-middle class and never wanted for anything... and then at around 18 I ended up rather abruptly taking care of myself, my wife (married between junior and senior year), and my kid (born during my senior year, yes,

      • To summarize your post "being stupid". How many of the persons you describe have children? Why do they buy a car when they are so poor? (You don't have to answer that question, "because they are stupid"). Why do they even live in a shithole place like countryside Tennessee??? (Again, you don't have to answer "because they are stupid").

    • Thank you for a cogent opinion!
    • Even if it were a right, that does not mean it needs to be handed out or subsidised.
      It is possible I am mistaken, in that case I'd like to know when I can expect to get an AR15 as it is declared a right by the second amendment.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by flyingfsck ( 986395 )
      I live in Europe and pay 20 Euro a month for broadband. Americans are ripped off.
    • Oh crap! People might have to cut back on their cigaweed, or cook 2 meals a month at home instead of shopping at McD's all the time, to afford their TikToks and Instagrams! Will the atrocities never cease?!? What if they have to cancel one of their streaming services to pay for the internet connection?

      Broadband at home is not a right, or even really a necessity. It's really helpful sometimes, yes, but... public libraries have it. Pretty much everyone (in the US) has a phone that has it now. And if they don't have it on their phone, they can go get it for free at McDonalds while feasting on their sloppy meals for 4x the price of cooking something healthy at home. Or they could go work for 2 hours somewhere to pay for a month of service (left coast wages, anyway).

      I've known a lot of poor people. The vast majority of them aren't poor because things cost so much, they're poor because they make poor choices. They eat fast food because someone once told them it's cheaper than cooking at home (it's not, unless you buy particularly expensive food). They buy crap they don't need on Amazon and Temu. They don't like to work, and blame the world when they get fired because they don't show up or act professionally. There are a few legit reasons it can be hard to hold a job, the biggest one is for single parents - child care is a PITA. Kids are a PITA. Truly. They can make it really hard to hold a job. But even so, the cost of "Broadband" for a basic plan is not that much, and many of the people wanting these discounted programs are spending far more on hair, and nails, and streaming services, and other stupid crap they don't need, than they would on a basic cable internet plan.

      You can spew hate all you want, but if we can afford to pour billions into for-profit industry with the CHIPS act, and still more money at bombs in foreign lands, I think we can afford to toss a few poor people inside our borders $30 so Timmy and Jenny can communicate with school and their friends. Every once in a great while, all that money we throw into the government should come back to some of us in some form. Why people get so bent out of shape about commoners getting funds, yet don't bat an eye at tos

  • Where does Congress get the legal authority to give money to the FCC to pay for individual Internet access?

    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Like most parliamentary bodies vested with budgetary powers, they are in fact vested with... budgetary powers.

      • by The Cat ( 19816 )

        Congress is not a parliamentary body. They are constrained by the Constitution with enumerated powers, none of which are "pay this guy's Internet bill."

    • by Moryath ( 553296 )
      You will find your answer in the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1. Please read it, then realize you're being a fucking dumbshit.
      • by The Cat ( 19816 )

        Here comes the guy who thinks James Madison wrote:

        1. Congress may only do these things.
        2. Congress can do anything.

        and that 13 angry and suspicious states ratified it.

        Of course, he never fails to call someone else a dumbshit.

    • by Khyber ( 864651 )

      Congress is tasked with 'Power of the Purse.' Read the entirety of the constitution, you might learn a thing or two.

      • by The Cat ( 19816 )

        Yeah! I was especially interested in the lines between the Eighth Amendment and the 11th Amendment. Pretty interesting stuff. I liked the part where it said the federal government is forbidden by law from doing anything that isn't explicitly authorized by the Constitution.

        Didn't see where "pay some guy's Internet bill" was mentioned, but maybe that was a typo.

        • Yo Mr. Constitutional Expert, which one fits best? "to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;" or "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,"? Maybe "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."???

          • by The Cat ( 19816 )

            Yo Kinglover wiseass, let's examine those clauses, shall we?

            to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States

            "General welfare" means everyone, not "some random guy with an unpaid Internet bill."

            To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts

            That is part of Congress' authority to establish intellectual property laws. Has zero to do with paying some random guy's Internet bill.

            o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

            The key words in that clause are "the foregoing powers" meaning the powers enumerated in Article I, none of which are "pay some random guy's Internet bill."

            That about cover it?

        • by Khyber ( 864651 )

          I said Constitution, not the Bill of Rights. You failed high school civics, didn't you?

          "Article I, Section 9, Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."

          We happen to have laws requiring subsidation of internet services. Thus congress has the authority for it. End of story. Go back to school. Quit voting Republican.

          • by The Cat ( 19816 )

            I said Constitution, not the Bill of Rights. You failed high school civics, didn't you?

            My irony meter just jumped up its own ass.

            We happen to have laws requiring subsidation of internet services.

            The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

            "Reserved" in this context means "exclusive."

            That is the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. It is the Supreme Law of the Land. It supersedes all Acts of Congress, all orders of the president, all rulings of the Supreme Court (or any other court), all acts of any legislature, governor or state court, and a

    • Where does Congress get the legal authority to give money to the FCC to pay for individual Internet access?

      Congress just called and they asked me to give you a message. They said they have your legal authority right here, then they grabbed their crotch.

      Do not ask me how I saw that over the telephone. No wait, it was a Zoom call. Yeah, a Zoom call.

      • by The Cat ( 19816 )

        Look at all the people running to their keyboards to defend a government with unlimited power! Just imagine if Congress passed prima nocta and lined up to plow every new bride on her wedding night!

        Oh I'm sorry, you didn't think through the "unlimited power" thing, did you? I'm not surprised at all. It's probably why you're so confused as to why we're $30 trillion in debt too.

    • From the people that directly elected them for this purpose, amongst others, including enumerating your rights and keeping the less democratically appointed parts of the government in check.
  • by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:45PM (#64440620)

    The ACP lapsed because Republicans continual support of the Hastert "rule". Which isn't a rule in the standard way one thinks of rules in Congress, but just this really weird thing Republicans do as tradition that was started by a guy who ultimately served time behind bars for funding sexual abuse of teenage boys.

    Hastert started the rule of "majority of the majority" in that no bill would be allowed to be heard unless a majority of the majority would vote to pass the bill. Since this is a Republican only tradition, it basically means that no bill can come to the floor if Democrats would carry it to success, unless Republicans are also behind it.

    That's it. A lot of bipartisan support was behind funding ACP, but because so some stupid ass tradition started by some idiot pederast in the 90s, lot of people in my community in particular will either have downgraded or loose Internet connectivity altogether.

    Great job Republicans. Once again, showing everyone how awesome your party is.

    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      imagine a world in which 70% to 80% of the political *middle* in the house was choosing a speaker, the rules committee, and chairmen, shutting out the Dingbat Caucus on the democrats' left, and the Arson Coalition on the republican left.

      Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine it--it worked this way for most of US history, for which party line votes were the exception, not the rule.

  • by CoolDiscoRex ( 5227177 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:57PM (#64440648) Homepage

    Fellow Americans, do not panic! You may have heard that we have cut off the $30 freeloading parasites, but DO NOT WORRY, this will in no way curtail our regularly scheduled corporate welfare, grant giving, foreign aid, or debt forgiveness to responsible affluent students. Also, should a large corporation need bailing out in the future, rest assured that we are ready willing and able to give until it hurts to enable that business to continue screwing you. In fact, with the personally irresponsible citizens now out of our pockets, we will have even more money to give away to deserving people, such as those who study average penis lengths of US males. Hey researchers, allow me to save you some data collection time. Nine and a half inches over here. You are most welcome.

    And even though your tax rates are remarkably close to that of countries with universal healthcare, only the evil actually want it, and you are not evil. You are Americans. You do not want handouts like those smelly Canadians. We here in the political class heard that they worship Satan.

    Anyway, we now return you to your scheduled divide and conquer programming, and remember, personal responsibility is the main value that us here in the ruling class desperate wants you to embrace. It leaves more of the sweet cash for us. Hey, the African Tree Frog is not going to study its own mating habits!

    Oh hey, Researchers, make that ten and a half inches! What can I say, I had a growth spurt.

    Get it? Growth spuryeah you get it. Boooyah!

  • by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @08:04PM (#64440668)

    You represent shit. Time for the American population to rise up and eject these cocksuckers.

  • Whoops! Looks like you forgot to pay a recurring expense. Well, we'll just hang onto your pay envelopes until you've done your job.

  • This is exactly the kind of program that Democrats love to fund, and who can blame them? It does, indeed, help poor people. The problem is that Congress has no legal charter to pay people's personal Internet bills. Here we have a good idea, but it's just not one that government can solve.

    Dems, here's your big chance! You can set up a GoFundMe to help these folks, and pick up the slack.

    • by Moryath ( 553296 )

      The problem is that Congress has no legal charter to pay people's personal Internet bills.

      Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1. Shove that up your lying inbred-shit illiterate Klan Fuckwit Ass.

  • They should look into the ISP Failure to Put Rural Broadband in while taking in the money for it with NOTHING to show for it. THIS SHOULD be talked about and addressed. but it's a secret that NO ONE wants to talk about. Get the money back for not doing anything.
  • by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 ) <baloo@ursamundi.org> on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @10:28PM (#64440916) Homepage Journal
    Require ISPs to offer an unlimited $15 tier out of their own profits.
  • I don't support these schemes because they artificially increase the buying power of customers which ISPs inevitably take advantage of at the taxpayers expense.

    Better to incentivize for example locally requiring low cost options in exchange for attachment rights...etc.

  • In most of the world, poorer people rely on mobile data, and $30/month will get a lot of GB.
    Sure not enough for hours of HD video every night, but plenty for study and general web browsing. Just connect the laptop to phone's hotspot or USB.
    What does $30/month get you in the US for mobile/cellular data?

  • I remember reading a lot of criticism (including here) about these efforts, where the telecom industry took the money, but failed to deliver. And that's actually a general concern for social program spending: does it actually provide the promised benefits?

    In the case of universal (or at least nationwide :-) ) internet access, success is pretty easy to measure. If Congress were functional (a big if, I know), they would be examining the results of the previous investments and seeing how to better invest th

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