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CraftyChicken
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 253
So, I was talking with some family down in central Ohio and learned that their, and my old, ISP have been awarded a broadband stimulus for fiber optic. Nobody really knows what this means, as even though this is an Electric Co-Op it's sure operates like a private business. (meaning you don't know what the hell is going on)
I did a little poking around the stimulus website and found lots of interesting tidbits. The first thing I noticed was the public comments from TWC and CenturyLink stating that they do, in fact, cover those areas, and apparently we're to stupid to use it, as it already 'exists' or, the best part 'will exist in the near future.' The truth is, this area is about a rural as it gets in the mid-west, and I don't know anyone out there who has cable or DSL. And it's not like we're all hicks... most people commute 30-60 minutes to the Columbus or Cleveland area
I'm personally not a big fan of stimulus programs, but it really gets my goat that these companies have the gall to stop the locals from doing it on their own by straight out lying to the FEDs.
I poked around some more, and found that all the applications for middle-wire and FTH proposals have similar comments from Verizon, AT&T, Cable Cos., and the little TeleCos. It's the same story for other middle-wire grants. Google map of course revealed that these areas are indeed rural. If you search the public comments for all the proposed, denied, and awarded grants I'm sure you'll see the same thing.
Of course, there were no complaints about $100,000 grants for wireless libraries (seriously, you'd think anyone on these boards could ring that out for much much less).
If you ever had doubts about the Monopolistic Telecommunications Fiefdoms we are slaves to... hope this puts things in perspective.
Anyway, I'll try to keep updated on this. It will be interesting to see this alongside the Google thing. I'll seriously LMAO if anything good comes out of this, which I doubt.
I did a little poking around the stimulus website and found lots of interesting tidbits. The first thing I noticed was the public comments from TWC and CenturyLink stating that they do, in fact, cover those areas, and apparently we're to stupid to use it, as it already 'exists' or, the best part 'will exist in the near future.' The truth is, this area is about a rural as it gets in the mid-west, and I don't know anyone out there who has cable or DSL. And it's not like we're all hicks... most people commute 30-60 minutes to the Columbus or Cleveland area
I'm personally not a big fan of stimulus programs, but it really gets my goat that these companies have the gall to stop the locals from doing it on their own by straight out lying to the FEDs.
I poked around some more, and found that all the applications for middle-wire and FTH proposals have similar comments from Verizon, AT&T, Cable Cos., and the little TeleCos. It's the same story for other middle-wire grants. Google map of course revealed that these areas are indeed rural. If you search the public comments for all the proposed, denied, and awarded grants I'm sure you'll see the same thing.
Of course, there were no complaints about $100,000 grants for wireless libraries (seriously, you'd think anyone on these boards could ring that out for much much less).
If you ever had doubts about the Monopolistic Telecommunications Fiefdoms we are slaves to... hope this puts things in perspective.
Anyway, I'll try to keep updated on this. It will be interesting to see this alongside the Google thing. I'll seriously LMAO if anything good comes out of this, which I doubt.
