US Mayors Urge Congress To Ditch Broadband Expansion Bill (theregister.com) 21
The US Conference of Mayors, which speaks for the administrations of more than 1,400 cities with a population of at least 30,000 people, adopted a resolution over the weekend at its annual meeting that voiced an objection to HR 3557, a draft law known as the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023. From a report: The bill, which was introduced by House Rep Earl Carter (R-GA) last May and is awaiting further consideration by Congress, is ostensibly designed to make it easier for telcos to build infrastructure and run additional cables on state and locally managed land, ideally allowing fast broadband connectivity to reach more and more folks.
Rep Carter went as far as saying his proposals will ensure "more Americans have access to internet and the United States can maintain its competitive edge against China." Meanwhile, the mayors say HR 3557 strips local governments of authority to oppose bad projects. What raises particular ire are provisions in the draft law that would provide a very short window for opposition. What we have here, basically, is a classic example of one side trying to strip away what is perceived to be bureaucracy and red tape, and the other side insisting that checks and balances are sorely needed.
Rep Carter went as far as saying his proposals will ensure "more Americans have access to internet and the United States can maintain its competitive edge against China." Meanwhile, the mayors say HR 3557 strips local governments of authority to oppose bad projects. What raises particular ire are provisions in the draft law that would provide a very short window for opposition. What we have here, basically, is a classic example of one side trying to strip away what is perceived to be bureaucracy and red tape, and the other side insisting that checks and balances are sorely needed.
More broadband is good, but (Score:3)
more Americans have access to internet and the United States can maintain its competitive edge against China.
This had to be added as a "scare tactic". It seems like a silly claim to make. Is rural broadband going to make us "more competitive" with China? Politicians suck
Re: (Score:2)
This had to be added as a "scare tactic". It seems like a silly claim to make. Is rural broadband going to make us "more competitive" with China? Politicians suck
Yes. And I'm surprised the mayors didn't counter with something typical like "won't someone think of the children!?!"
Re: (Score:2)
Cable / Telco city level monopolies (Score:2)
Mayors and the cities they work for do not want to lose the millions they make in franchise fees and taxes from the near monopoly cable and telco companies in their city.
9 years ago Philedelphia PA was getting $17 million a year from Comcast for cable TV franchise.
It is about the money, the news article always ignores the money.
From 2015 : https://www.cbsnews.com/philad... [cbsnews.com]
Franchise Fee: The Franchise provides for the maximum lawful franchise fee of 5% of gross revenues from cable service, which currently e
Just subsidize starlink/kuiper (Score:2)
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Exactly this. Hate for Musk is only reason they don't want to do that. They hate Musk more than they care about rural broadband, which was always a project for handing money to telcos who have been taking billions of dollars and have nothing to show for it. Not unless you consider executive mansions and their Bentleys. Reference: https://catholicvote.org/biden... [catholicvote.org]
Imagine if Starlink had that 42 billion.
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CatholicVote that's not even affiliated with the catholic church?
CatholicVote Civic Action is inspired and organized by faithful Catholic laity. For this reason, we do not claim to speak for any individual bishop or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We represent the voices of millions of Catholics across America who seek to renew our country and our culture, in full communion with and 100% faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
Yes we're just some Catholics like you who think we have biblically sound opinions on rural broadband.
Dude you're incredibly stupid and gullible you should see a fucking neurologist
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Imagine if Starlink had that 42 billion.
That would be incredible; they would have hooked up 642K rural locations with just $885M [x.com] (~2% of the money).
I love Musk! (Score:1)
He fills the hole in my heart left when creimer passed away.
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Satellite internet is on the order of multiple seconds of latency - at geostationary orbit. Starlink gets around that by putting up disposable satellites in very very low orbit with a lifespan of just 4-5 *years*. over half of satellites in orbit today are Starlink. And all have to be replaced every 5 years.
SpaceX junk already falling on US and Canada uncontrolled. It *will* get worse and fair chance to kick off the Kessler Syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] that denies us any access to space f
Re:Just subsidize starlink/kuiper (Score:5, Interesting)
Just give up subsidies for starlink, kuiper and wireless 5G it's cheaper and more effective than any of the proposed ideas.
That just leads farther in the direction of moving EVERYTHING to wireless. For one thing, it's putting all the eggs into one vulnerable basket. For another, we may have cause to regret all that space junk we're putting into orbit, where we can't control it and can't reuse or recycle it. So I'm not at all in favour of your proposed approach.
Rural mayors love to block projects (Score:1)
Re:Rural mayors love to block projects (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Rural mayors love to block projects (Score:5, Insightful)
More laws to benefit the telcos (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember in the late 1990s when states were passing laws preventing municipalities from starting their own internet service, as that would compete with the local telcos who gave the politicians lots of donations?
Maybe if theyâ(TM)d get rid of those laws, there would be more broadband expansion. At reasonable prices, too.
Minnesota finally did it recently: https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... [arstechnica.com]
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Remember in the late 1990s when states were passing laws preventing municipalities from starting their own internet service, as that would compete with the local telcos who gave the politicians lots of donations?
Maybe if theyâ(TM)d get rid of those laws, there would be more broadband expansion. At reasonable prices, too.
Minnesota finally did it recently: https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... [arstechnica.com]
This shouldn't be up to the states, and it sure as hell shouldn't be up to the private sector. At the end of it all it's a national security issue - not security in the sense of fending off foreign enemies, but security in the sense that the health, viability, and competitiveness of the entire nation depend on all citizens having fast, reliable broadband access.
The feds should take over and execute on a strategy that leaves no one behind. The telcos and other corps can either get on board to make some profi
A Deal with the Devil (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to work for a mejor telco. Don't give them an inch.
If they can't bargain with city and county officials, let those areas remain underserved.
They will abuse every last phrase, word, or letter in the law to get what they want. And they only care about profit. If anything, they're downright resentful of the fact that they should be providing quality service to earn that profit.
This is the one industry that I am categorically against empowering. We do want good internet service, but telco monopolies are not the way we get it.
Re:A Deal with the Devil (Score:4, Interesting)
Amen. But, not sure if the best thing is to oppose this bill -- if that is your intent?
In my city there are two main players (Spectrum and AT&T). They generally don't compete -- the have divided the city between them instead.
Our city government does not make them compete. With Spectrum having 24 hour "local" news, and both companies "supporting" local elected officials, I can see why city officials are pretty happy with the way things are.
I would love more competition, if this bill could provide it. FWIW.
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This joker is a real piece of work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]