Widening the Digital Divide

There is a 65 billion dollar initiative that is now Widening the Digital Divide. The list of reasons is pretty ugly. Infighting of incumbents, the apparent failure of Starlink, and companies who took millions of dollars, meant to provide rural bandwidth, now filing for bankruptcy, and leaving rural populations without the connectivity that already had been paid for. All of this and more to follow, but first I think it is important to understand just why we need Broadband in rural areas anyway?

Do you remember having to dig around in your junk drawer to find a Chinese food menu??

Taking a class or checking a stack of books out of the library every time you wanted to learn a new skill??

Driving over to the Blockbuster to rent a video??

Printing out reports at school or work to submit them??

Paying bills by mail with a check??

Faxing??

Now all of these tasks and plenty of others can be taken care of with just a few clicks or over email as long as you can access Broadband Internet.?

And you lose all of this if you don't have broadband internet.?We have a generation, that has lost all of this, and we are about to produce another generation, that will be lost if things stay just the way they are.?

The Problems -

• Rural areas with less than eight homes per route mile, and a minimum cost of $50,000 per mile for fiber.
• States like New Mexico and Idaho have an average population density of fewer than 20 people per square mile. The majority of the state is in areas with less than 8 subscribers per mile.?
• Amid a massive new wave of broadband funding, a new type of barrier has emerged – State Restrictions prohibiting Metropolitan or community networks from receiving these federal funds.?- Today Washington & Arkansas have moved to Eliminate Restrictions with more states to come in 2023 and most states have plans to do so before 2024.?

Community or Metropolitan networks were originally banned by law. (mostly because the incumbents could not compete)

The legislation provided a level playing ground for incumbent telcos who had a very hard time competing with wireless communities or metropolitan networks (WISP). Verizon, ATT, no one could compete competitively with smaller homegrown community networks, then referred to as Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) so legislation was created to protect them.?

Community networks (WISP) Scale very quickly. The Majority of adoption occurs at the edge of the network, and at zero marginal cost.

Marketing is completely different, you tell your neighbor they can get 1 gig of internet for 1 dollar a gig, just like you do. Remember?Community or Metropolitan networks were originally banned by law. (mostly because the incumbents could not compete)

Today in the US the average price for broadband is 62.00 a month which ranks us in the top quarter of the 117 countries as far as price.?

Yet if the US were in Europe it would have the most expensive internet in the region. Source: https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/internet-costs-compared-worldwide

The Summary -?

The broadband market is ripe for change as traditional services fully mature and participants seek to maximize profitability and new revenue streams.?

Consumers now value technology more than ever and are increasingly seeking out new applications including Wi-Fi services and various value-added bundled services.?

The most significant events and trends that impact the broadband industry include disruptive technologies, changing consumer trends, and the competitive landscape.

The Solution -??

4G/5G to Wi-Fi Rural Mesh networks - Yes it works amazingly well, in fact, I'm currently publishing on it. And checking email, and probably some youtube and some Netflix tonight.?

None of my neighbors will be if it snows or the wind blows. My neighbors out here use satellite, or DSL only, well until last week, now there is 4G/5G to WI-fi through, but just for my place.?

I am setting up a website to teach others how to do the same thing as I am, and maybe even sell bandwidth to their neighbors as a side hustle. I will be updating this site daily starting in 2023. You can find out more here - https://LastMile.Earth

Widening the Digital Device Part two - here - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/widening-digital-divide-part-2-michael-noel/

In this series we will cover a number of potential solutions, creating platforms in Rural America, that provide for education, employment, and recovery.

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"You Can't Sail Today's Boat on Yesterday's Wind."

– Michael Noel

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I am setting up a website to teach others how to do the same thing as I am, and maybe even sell bandwidth to their neighbors as a side hustle. I will be updating this site daily starting in 2023. You can find out more here - https://LastMile.Earth

Widening the Digital Device Part two - here -?https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/widening-digital-divide-part-2-michael-noel/