Randy Petty
Total lifetime comments: 74
Recent Comments by Randy Petty
Looking down our noses at “low information” voters won’t change things. Many of Trump’s promises will either be stopped/limited by reality ( consumers pay for tariffs), “guardrailed” by those with more brain cells in the new administration or will just fail ( catastrophically in some cases). But the huge numbers that don’t read much or pay attention will either forget about the promises or not see it when they don’t come to fruition. ( or be embarassed to admit it)
So….those on the left should promise the moon. As James Carville said yesterday, “with elections, winning is everything.” Unless you just happen to enjoy falling on your own sword.
Say what the majority of people who swing elections want to hear about Gaza, trans issues, immigration etc., then do the right thing once in office.
I believe this state government site helps identify where broadband is needed. There is an application process to obtain funding. I suppose a neighborhood could organize and try that but it seems like it is municipalities, port authorities, native organizations etc that are the most common applicants.
“The BEAD program is working to get all Americans online by funding partnerships between states or territories, tribal nations, communities, internet providers and other stakeholders to build infrastructure where needed and increase high-speed internet adoption. The federal program provides over $42 billion for infrastructure planning and implementation nationwide. Washington will receive more than $1.23 billion in funding.
Please continue to monitor Washington’s Internet for All website for the most up-to-date information on the BEAD process. On the same webpage, you can also subscribe to email updates.”
Thanks David. I’m glad to see this issue being analyzed. If it isn’t already there, broadband is moving close to water and power as far as being required for anything to be called civilized living.
That article showed this: “We restrict our analysis only to services
offered to residential customers for any wired Internet technologies. We consider both the share of broadband serviceable locations that have at least one service with 25 Mbps download / 3 Mbps upload speed as well as those with at least one 100 Mbps download / 20 Mbps upload speed. The latter speeds reflect the current FCC broadband benchmark while the former is the previous benchmark.”
( my service is 60/5 )
Were the figures based on the new FCC definition of “broadband,” which became 100mbps down and 20 mbps up this year?
I speak with Europeans on a regular basis and even some in rural areas have immense bandwidth. The only thing I can say in our defense is that our country is so large. I’ve seen estimates of $20k per mile to lay fiber.
I never thought I’d say it but this disparity makes me wonder about us footing the world’s military bill.
The comment from astound customer service:
“Fingers crossed that either Astound gets an infrastructure grant for your area soon or at least a different highspeed provider moves in if they haven’t already. If the company does expand, usually Astound will send out the Direct Sales Representatives to let the street/neighborhood know they will be serviceable.”
Down here on the ground, beneath all of the state/local squabbling, Astound said no, again.
They sure are advertising like crazy, but if they don’t already have equipment in your neighborhood, or even if they do but choose not to expand due to the density of homes, you’re out of luck.
So far I don’t want an increase bad enough to spend what Starlink asks.
From the governor’s office, June 2023:
“Thanks to legislation passed in 2021, certain public entities can provide broadband services directly to their constituencies. Some Washington cities and counties, including the city of Anacortes and Jefferson County’s public utility district have started their own internet service providers, rather than waiting for private companies to build out the infrastructure.“We’re taking that extra step to be that retail ISP… so that, in our rural areas, we can ensure our customers that if we build it, there will be someone there to provide that service and take care of that service in case anything goes wrong,” said Will O’Donnell, communications director of Jefferson’s Public Utility District.”
https://medium.com/wagovernor/making-internet-for-all-possible-in-washington-3160670364bd