WashingtonTimes: Residents in rural America are eager to access high-speed internet under a $42.5 billion federal modernization program, but not a single home or business has been connected to new broadband networks nearly three years after President Biden signed the funding into law, and no project will break ground until sometime next year.
A big part of the problem is the piling on to any government program a host of progressive wish-list items including:
• Preference for hiring union workers, who are scarce in some rural areas.
• Requiring providers to prioritize “certain segments of the workforce, such as individuals with past criminal records,” when building broadband networks.
• Requiring eligible entities to “account not only for current [climate-related] risks but also for how the frequency, severity, and nature of these extreme events may plausibly evolve as our climate continues to change over the coming decades.”
If this sounds familiar, recall my post on Building Back Key Bridge Better (note the date).
By the way, the FCC estimates that 7.2 million locations, i.e. houses and businesses, don’t have broadband access. $42.5 billion is enough to give all 7.2 million locations a 4-year subscription to Starlink (7.2 million locations * $120 per month * 48 months=$42.7 billion), and I am sure Elon would give us a discount so I didn’t include set up costs. Of course, the FCC decided that Starlink was not eligible for the program citing “SpaceX’s failure to successfully launch its Starship rocket.” Note that the FCC made their decision in 2022, years before the program was to rollout.
