Hold on, the USDA has been funding phone companies for longer than you or I have been walking the earth. Just because you were not granted a monopoly public service piece of turf 50 or 75 years ago with the attached benefits (and requirements) no reason for sour grapes. Be happy for the folks that will get the service because ultimately everyone will have fiber.
Some folks filed and got CPCNs to be phone companies. Some folks got seats on the stock exchanges. Some folks got licenses to fish salmon or crab in alaska. You can still become a phone company in this nation if you can find unserved folks with unserved turf under their feet. Becomes harder to do each year and will soon become impossible probably. From: Rory Conaway Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2015 8:21 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] 1G fiber for $60 ... if you get $85M govt grant It’s criminal but demonstrates the power of crony capitalism and why innovation by small business is stymied. You never know when a corrupt government agency is going to fund your competitor. Rory From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015 7:20 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [AFMUG] 1G fiber for $60 ... if you get $85M govt grant Am I doing the math wrong? $85M govt grant, service area is 18K homes and businesses, isn't that $4700 per home passed? So isn't it wonderful that people can get this service for $720/year, if the govt pays 9 times that for the construction. http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/06/10gbps-internet-for-400-a-month-can-be-yours-if-you-move-to-vermont/ Then we have to hear all the time that the only reason everyone can’t get this speed at this price is because ISPs are greedy.
