<story><title>Sanders unveils plan to boost broadband access, break internet and cable titans</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/bernie-sanders-releases-broadband-plan-targets-comcast-att-verizon.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ajmurmann</author><text>Distances in the US can be so much bigger than in other countries, leading to rural areas being much more rural than in pretty much any other developed country. This makes servicing some rural communities very expensive. Not only for ISPs but for pretty much any infrastructure. Living in a rural area is a decision, that&amp;#x27;s fine for people to make, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure we all need to be subsidizing it. Yes, cities have become very expensive, but it would be much cheaper as a society to solve that problem by getting rid of NIMBY regulation and make it easier and cheaper to build denser than to keep maintaining small, remote settlements with very little economic value</text></item><item><author>DanTheManPR</author><text>The inequality in access to service around the US is stark. I&amp;#x27;m currently living in a suburb of a large city, and have some of the most awesome internet I&amp;#x27;ve ever had (I can finally host my minecraft server from home!). My parents living an hour away in a small town pay more for service that can&amp;#x27;t reliably stream video... but pay slightly more than I do. It&amp;#x27;s one of the thousands of small cuts that are killing rural areas.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>iron0013</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s truth to that, but affordable rural high speed internet is possible. Paul Bunyan Communications in northern Minnesota, for example, runs affordable fiber optic service deep into the country. My friend lives 25 miles from any town, and they happily ran fiber out to his house. The main difference between Paul Bunyan Communications and other rural providers who claim that such a thing is &amp;quot;impossible&amp;quot; seems to be that Paul Bunyan is a Co-operative: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;paulbunyan.net&amp;#x2F;cooperative&amp;#x2F;our-history&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;paulbunyan.net&amp;#x2F;cooperative&amp;#x2F;our-history&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Sanders unveils plan to boost broadband access, break internet and cable titans</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/bernie-sanders-releases-broadband-plan-targets-comcast-att-verizon.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ajmurmann</author><text>Distances in the US can be so much bigger than in other countries, leading to rural areas being much more rural than in pretty much any other developed country. This makes servicing some rural communities very expensive. Not only for ISPs but for pretty much any infrastructure. Living in a rural area is a decision, that&amp;#x27;s fine for people to make, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure we all need to be subsidizing it. Yes, cities have become very expensive, but it would be much cheaper as a society to solve that problem by getting rid of NIMBY regulation and make it easier and cheaper to build denser than to keep maintaining small, remote settlements with very little economic value</text></item><item><author>DanTheManPR</author><text>The inequality in access to service around the US is stark. I&amp;#x27;m currently living in a suburb of a large city, and have some of the most awesome internet I&amp;#x27;ve ever had (I can finally host my minecraft server from home!). My parents living an hour away in a small town pay more for service that can&amp;#x27;t reliably stream video... but pay slightly more than I do. It&amp;#x27;s one of the thousands of small cuts that are killing rural areas.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cannonedhamster</author><text>Cities have some of the most expensive internet rates. The US has some of the most expensive internet in the entire world. Your distance argument only makes sense if you take away the billions given to ISPs to lay black fiber. Cities would be super cheap internet. That&amp;#x27;s not what happened. ISPs charge exorbitant fees for a service they barely keep up to date. Remote settlements are often what allows those cities to exist and who are you to tell people where and how they should live?</text></comment>