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My Broad Beef

Someone recently asked me about my continuous beef about not having access to broadband from my rural home. I have included some links to support my beef. In 2005 Katrina came through my hometown in Mississippi. I had return to my hometown thinking I could ride out Katrina safely 3.5 hours from my home in southern Mississippi. The reality was Katrina was a big storm that hit most of Mississippi. As I sat at my mother's home for going to my home was not possible due to the damage to the highways and government interference AT&T came out to lay a fiber optic cable. Please note, I was not actually sitting, after Katrina came through we had dead animals and downed trees to clear from property. Also we would be without electricity, land line phones, and cell phone access for two weeks. Katrina let us off easy for the further south you went the longer you were without utilities.

When I first saw the men laying cable underground, two days after Katrina, I thought finally someone got a clue to put the utilities underground. My next thought was "Yes, we will have lights." When the guys told me they were contractors for AT&T and were laying fiber optic not electric or plain telephone line I was too thrilled to be despondent over another dark and telephone-less night in the Mississippi backwoods. Fast-forward to 2011 and I am still driving into town to have high-speed access. I spent the summer driving 80 miles one way to take a class that I could have taken over the internet had I access to high-speed.

True, I could get a satellite access but something in my ancestral bloodline prevents me from paying 3 times the cost to have 1.5 times less the speed. I would be a little bit more understanding if it were not for the fact that I was aware of a plan as far back as 2004 to have the U.S. connected to broadband by 2007. The date was later pushed back to 2010. My point is I am not asking for something to happen overnight. It has been 5 years since the cable was laid. Having been an Information Technology worker for almost 20 years with some knowledge of light voltage cabling, switches, and routers, I know it does not Jehovah to come connect my home to high-speed service.

If I do not get it soon, I may ask for an act in congress ( http://bit.ly/ig9zE0).

In short my beef about broadband access is tax money has been given to private corporations, I have fiber optic cable in front of my home since 2005, my neighbors just got it last month( I setup their wireless home networks), my neighbors 1 mile away got it 2005 soon after fiber optic cable was laid, and I just do not do stupid well at all.

http://msbusiness.com/blog/2010/09/state-receiving-federal-funds-for-broadband/
http://www.broadbandusa.gov/
http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/
http://www.wiscnews.com/wisconsindellsevents/news/local/article_640fa758-8b98-11df-aac9-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Fighting-University-Of-Wisconsin-Broadband-Expansion-110911
http://blog.connectedplanetonline.com/unfiltered/2010/07/09/verizon-att-lead-universal-service-fund-pay-outs/
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/278835-AT_T_Wants_100_Broadband_Access_by_2014.php
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aXx.QVEa9vpM (they may tell but I doubt if they do)


This desire do not start yesterday or in 2009

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3571
http://www.americanwaymag.com/broadband-access-technology-implementations-high-speed-internet-access-george-w-bush
http://telecommunityalliance.org/issues/broadbanduniservice.html
http://www.accessebroadband.info/article.cfm?id=144&xid=UMN

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