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by promptcritical
4526 days ago
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First of all, I don't think anyone (least of all Comcast) is going to roll anything out "next month." This is not a new issue for the US (having crappy broadband). This article [1] talks about what came of the $200 billion the government gave away to telcos to help build out our infrastructure since 1990 (spoiler: nothing came of it)... and the article is from 2007 so the total giveaway is even more at this point. So I don't think this is a new problem that we are suddenly looking at "next month" solutions for. Secondly, there is no incentive for anyone (again least of all Comcast) to roll out anything next month, next year, or next decade that would significantly improve broadband in the US. For that you would need meaningful competition. We don't have that here. That's why idiots like TW cable's CFO can say things like "nobody wants gigabit internet" [2] and all that happens is the tech media gets ruffled feathers for a few days. Why on earth would Comcast roll out anything other than what they already have? What are their customers going to do if they don't like it? Go to satellite? Slower but maybe more stable DSL? Yeah, it was one anecdote, but it was one that highlights the political incompetence and corporate graft that help hold us back from having nice things. [1] http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_0026... [2] http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/time-warner-cab... |
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We also don't have a majority of customers who want to pay more than $40/month for internet.
Comcast has been rolling out decent internet, I currently have 105 megabit internet and I'm in a suburb, but it isn't cheap. I think many in the HN bubble over estimate the number of people who they think will pay for the monthly fee it would take for a company to roll out super fast internet in a place as large as the USA, even if it is just limited to major cities and their suburbs.