FCC boss sketches out bargain broadband for hard-up Americans Tom Wheeler, chairman of US internet watchdog the FCC, has asked the regulator's commissioners to offer broadband to poor Americans via the Lifeline program. The net-neutrality crusader has put forward a list of proposed updates to Lifeline, including the addition of broadband to what is right now just a phone-only program. …
First things first dildo! Seriously, there are people who need food, running water, sanitation and electricity before they need Facebook!
Am I cynical? probably, but I think I'd rather have running water and such before jumping into the world wide wading pool...
Priorities people...
I have to disagree with you. I am retired and live in a neighbourhood occupied primarily by lower income people. Children in school, are given assignments that can only be done using the internet. I have a computer that I allow the kids in my neighborhood to use to do homework. Sure there are computers at the local library, but if every child who needs to use a computer for homework, would try to use those computers, there are just not enough computers at the library to go around. Also, poor parents often cannot afford gas to take their kids to the library 5 times a week. The internet is increasing a class division that is already too large. Also, schools are giving assignments in Power Point and they only let the students use power point to work their assignment. Libre office is not accepted. IT would be nice if these same schools would offer MS Office disks with a one year expiration for these students. I live in the US and our military budget is larger than the sum of the military budgets of the next 15 highest countries. Congress is proposing a 7+ percent in military spending this year!!!! It would be nice to use a little bit of that military spending to help children get low cost internet. Funny how the radical right complains about giving any money or services to the poor, yet they complain that these kids grow up and need welfare benefits to live because they could not compete because of a lack of internet/computers. PS, I buy used computers at recycling centers and rebuild them and give them to poor children to use for school. That is my hobby ,
Been there, done that while I was living on the streets. There's a shitload more people than there are machines. At least here [Fresno, CA, US pop > 500,000]. Hey, you've got all that free time, don't you since you aren't working, even if you've got a roof over your head. Unfortunately, one of the strings attached to benefits is that you're actively looking for work which you've got to document, so you don't. Temp benefits these days, even for disability are that way. You get to spend a lot of your time at a clinic, hospital, and especially agencies sine Congress seems to want to employ the most bureaucrats possible rather than having them all in one building let alone one case manager.
"And they couldn't use the computers at their local library... "
Just a bit of data on Libraries. At least the ones in my city. You often can't get time on their computers. There is often a waiting list. Then when you do get on one you are limited to a 30min session. That doesn't work when you have to take a 60min online behavior test for that simple Box Store retail or shoe store job. Yup, those national retail chains make you do that now and the Libraries don't let you have that long of a session.
Would you employ Jimmyjoebob who just got that there internet account? Maybe sysadmin at AOL? The companies that employ our buddy Jimmy don't care if you are linked in or not. Can you <insert manual labor here> is their question. It can be conveyed by making their mark. X usually is enough.
Seriously, there are people who need food, running water, sanitation and electricity before they need Facebook!
You seem to forget the difference between absolute and relative poverty. The people who will qualify for this broadband handout are relatively poor in the United States. Globally, these folks are considered well off, i.e. any person making $12000/year is in the top 15% of annual income globally (based on purchasing power parity per www.globalrichlist.com).
While there will certainly be some who qualify that do require the necessities which you listed, the vast majority will not, at least in the United States (which is the entire point).
One thing that isn't captured (intentionally) is the value of benefits received which really paints a distorted picture of our resources as "poor people." I briefly toyed with working with that data but it's seriously ring fenced. Overseas, not so much but then you run into bureaucratic hostility since they believe you will paint a negative portrait, which sure wouldn't be me. I would be looking for what works. That's what you get from an engineer turned economist. [Think micro-loans, etc.] BTW, the icon isn't about you.
The key word here is "relative" ... a "well off" person in the US making $12,000 per annum is going to be up against it in an area like Seattle where the median one-bedroom apartment rents for $1,700 per month ... not counting the first/last month rental deposit. That's pretty much the rule for large urban areas in the US. Too bad there's not quite enough ghetto-class slum housing to go around ...
Looks like the government still doesn't understand that Telco's don't have much "broadband" infrastructure to begin with, let alone to give away. They can't support all the paying customers.
If you want to drive the "car" at high speed, you need a nice smooth highway first. The Telco's can't even take care of the infrastructure they have already. They are literally "driving" their ADSL on washboard gravel roads, high speed they are NOT!
Cable internet providers are little better. Too much contention and lag. At 15 mbps avg. speed they could hardly be called "broadband" either.
Verizon FIOS is not available in most locations, and wireless Internet is not available except to cell users.
So the government is making MORE promises that they cannot keep, before there is even an infrastructure built to support them. Good luck with that!
So where exactly did the telcos install that rural broadband that they got billions of dollars (actually several times, not just one go)? Must have cost million millions each mile. Both Presidents talked it up as infrastructure investments we direly needed to do.
It should be funny but I sure ain't laughing. The telcos love free money from the FCC but go to court when one of their own (Wheeler) attaches strings.
First,
Broadband isn't available in our area, cell service isn't even in some of our areas.
Second, why should I pay for someone's cell/internet service? I live in an area that's relatively poor. Most is by choice.
This program is great for our drug dealers as it's more free stuff as they already get free food/water/etc. I just filed taxes for somebody and they got back over $5000 because of the earned income credit. They bought a 4 wheeler, go cart, and pool with the money. A lot/not all, of the people who would qualify for this program are just sponges.
We just get by.....so why should I pay for their phone and internet service?
The FCC does little to nothing to protect consumers from blatant abuse and violation of law by cable companies and Telcos. One or two grand standing gestures to get on the news does not make these government agencies properly functioning consumer protection devices.
Comcast cable has been documented to be illegally blocking legitimate international e-mail send to U.S. subscribers yet the FCC and FTC refuse to stop this illegal activity. Comcast has been documented to be illegally performing customer credit checks (which compromise a person's credit rating in the U.S.), even after customers pay Comcast a $50. security deposit to NOT run a credit check. The FCC and FTC has done nothing to stop this violation of law. Comcast has been found illegally placing public "hot spots" in residences without any notice to subscribers that these hot spots are open to the public and that the resident is legally responsible for the misuse of these hot spots. The FTC and FCC has done nothing to stop this illegal activity. Comcast has system cross talk on their VoIP resulting in phantom phone calls day and night that Comcast is unable and unwilling to fix. The FTC and FCC has done nothing to force Comcast to terminate these phantom phone calls and properly maintain their systems.
When are consumers going to flood the FTC and FCC with complaints about the lack of law enforcement regarding the Telcos and cable companies? The Telcos have a similar history to the cable companies which is outrageous at best. The FTC and FCC are charged by law with preventing these criminal acts by the cable companies and Telcos yet the FTC and FCC do nothing when presented with irrefutable proof of blatant wide spread crime by these companies. How can this be? It can be because the chair persons at the FTC and FCC are bought off by Big Biz. That's why the char persons and company CEOs should all go to prison for 25 years so they understand the consequences of their actions and failure to protect consumers from crime.
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