
FCC vote paves way for budget cap on all universal-service broadband programs - pwg
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/06/fcc-funding-for-poor-people-and-rural-areas-ajit-pai-says-lets-cap-that/
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JumpCrisscross
Building infrastructure to remote regions is expensive. There is an honest
debate to be had about America’s penchant for subsidising rural and suburban
living at the expense of cheaper, greener urban lifestyles.

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chrisseaton
> America’s penchant for subsidising rural and suburban living

You make it sound like a luxury choice.

People in rural communities are generally poorer. It says 'poor people' right
in the title. You're subsidising basic communications for them because they're
poor, and communications are needed to participate in democracy and society.

Saying they should live in downtown apartments is the modern equivalent of
'let them eat cake.' They can't afford to do that - they're poor.

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x0x0
We have plenty of poor folks in our urban areas. Given the vast resistance
(see, eg, Trump) from the rural areas for chipping in for necessary urban
infra such as public transit, I see no reason to vote for continuing to
subsidize necessary rural infra: electricity, water, communications. Let them
pay market rate.

~~~
elil17
The market rate for utility type services is not a fair rate because utilities
breed natural monopolies. That’s why the universal service program exists in
the first place.

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x0x0
No, universal service funds are a subsidy. Rural utilities generally cannot be
supplied at a cost people are willing to pay.

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BurningFrog
Before you get too excited about this $11.4B cap:

> _The new cap wouldn 't have an immediate impact on actual spending, because
> it's higher than current spending. The FCC projects that the USF's total
> disbursements will be $10.2 billion in 2019 and remain below $10.5 billion
> annually through 2023._

The battle lines here are interesting: Rural voters are _the_ core republican
voter group, and yet Democrats are fighting for them and Republicans _against_
them.

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ensignavenger
I have spent most of my life living in rural communities, and many years of it
fighting for rural broadband. The USF is probably the least useful and most
wasteful of all government programs for rural broadband. The incumbent telecos
play so many games with the system that it is a miracle that any of it
actually helps anyone.

The USDA has some imperfect programs, which while flawed, are much more
effective than the USF.

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aasasd
I thankfully have zero stakes in the US' internal politics, but due to me
being able to read English and using the internet, even I know that rural
regions there don't tend to harbor too many voters for Democrats.

~~~
HeWhoLurksLate
Maybe they can change that? Politics is a complicated, multifaceted thing- if
the Dems can even get into a few rural districts, that, along with the
generally-Left-swinging urban areas, might be enough to swing the balance of
the state.

