welfare expands with internet access

Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago to Government
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here we go with the future of america. . WoW.
of all of the market interventions, the internet
may be the worst. . IMHO. -- j
.
SOURCE URL: http://www.ijreview.com/2015/05/331762-here-comes-obamanet-fcc-move-would-make-tens-of-millions-eligible-for-broadband-internet-subsidies/


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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 11 months ago
    I do not know enough to agree/disagree, but this may be related to the end of the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). The system operated for decades with it only being profitable if 30%-40% of the people in an urban area had them. My understanding is it wasn't profitable in rural areas, but urban subscribers subsidized it. It was a monopoly, and the theory was the value increased for everyone if everyone had access, so they subsidized rural customers.

    The POTS will be gone by the end of this decade, replaced by the Internet and mobile phones. I suspect the FCCs is applying the POTS rural subsidy reasoning to its successor. I would be more in favor of letting prices rise for rural customers, perhaps increasing slightly the cost of rural living and causing innovative people to think of ways to get them cheaper service. The trouble is those people are already complaining about increased costs, and I suspect this is a way to appease them.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
      I thought that the feds were using the excuse of the
      complaints by many youngsters and others about
      the high costs of Charter (and others) cable for
      high-bandwidth service -- to smooth out costs and
      availability in spite of the increased demand for this
      high-bandwidth service for online, on-demand movies
      and the like. . my service arrives on a telephone
      line (POTS) and may continue more than another
      decade. . who knows? -- j
      .
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      • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 11 months ago
        "complaints by many youngsters and others about the high costs of Charter..."
        As I think you're saying, those youngsters will be disappointed if they expect the gov't to provide those bits more cost effectively.

        "my service arrives on a telephone line (POTS) and may continue more than another decade."
        I've heard 2018 as a target for the last year of POTS. Maybe it will go on a bit longer. They're transitioning people to VoIP devices that simulate landlines, but the calls go directly over the internet:
        http://bit.ly/EndPOTS
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