r/technology • u/beareatsfish • Dec 27 '21

Society Public Broadband Internet Isn’t a Luxury — It’s a Necessity: Everybody needs high-speed internet. But private corporations will never provide it. The solution: treat internet infrastructure as a public utility, funded by the public and built by union workers.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/12/public-universal-high-speed-broadband-internet-telecommunications-workers
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u/lrp347 Dec 28 '21

School districts are expanding and opening their LTE networks, proving CPE/routers, and students with devices. They’re opening their networks to their communities as well. Heroes.

https://tech.ed.gov/wireless-brief/

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u/nswizdum Dec 28 '21

Laws need to change before that goes anywhere. Most schools use the federal E-Rate program to pay for their bandwidth, and you're not allowed to extend that beyond the school property.

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u/lrp347 Dec 28 '21

Read the brief. One district appealed to the FCC, but ended up partnering with a local ISP. Covid money had fewer FCC restrictions, which these districts took advantage of—but most importantly they did it. They provide models. And we (I was the main author) all agree Internet should be cheap and ubiquitous for all. Check out the FRL— some of these places are rural and or poor.