Wed, Jun 02, 2021 at 01:02:00PM -0400, Josh Luthman:
Phone is telecom. Internet is not telecom. Generally speaking.
If you think both of those services are US funded, why do you think we have this current situation where not everyone has fiber?
To answer your question, there is some assistance to those big companies (AT&T, Frontier, CenturyLink). Did you notice that two of them have filed bankruptcy recently? They also wrote letters apologizing they didn't deploy the services they were paid to do.
USF is for phone. Not internet.
I believe that is incorrect. afaik, 4 Internet connectivity programs have been created within the USF. iirc, that occured 7 - 10 years ago. I think CAF granted ~1.5T in its last phase. All support/subsidy for traditional dial-tone from the USF should be redirected to voip and internet. A significant problem with USF grants is that grantees are not required to serve an entire FCC census tract (an area much smaller than a USPS zip code) when they accept a grant to service it. Meaning that if just a portion, the most convenient portion, of a census tract is serviced, the FCC is satisfied and then considers the entire tract served. Which is exactly what happened to my area, thanks FCC & Comcast - who also will not discuss extending it the ~.5 mile to reach me and neighbors. I'd be delighted to have 25M symmetrical. What I can buy at consumer prices (~$55 MRC) is .8M/.8M DSL (MTR > 30 days for a few neighbors after the last storm). If I were located about 1.5 in any direction, I could buy 100M/100M or 1G/100M. No viable 4G or 5G options. There is Sprint fiber about 300 feet away, but I'm told it is voice only. There is Zayo fiber about .5 miles away, 100M for ~$1k MRC lit or ~$4k dark to the telco hotel, but it also has other challanges.