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Too Poor to Afford the Internet

nytimes.com

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Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#41

Post by walrus01 »

jawns wrote: post #10

Can I just say how much I love the way public libraries have navigated themselves into the digital age? They are, as this piece points out, very popular places to access computers and the Internet, and many libraries offer a wealth of digital content. I can check out and instantly download e-books and audiobooks and movies from my library. It's certainly conceivable that they might have transitioned less well. There…

> Can I just say how much I love the way public libraries have navigated themselves into the digital age?

yes, I also enjoy visiting the library to see the unwashed hobos jacking off to barely legal pornographic websites in a public place.

Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#43

Post by randyrand »

__jal wrote: post #24
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #6

I'm torn about this. On the one hand it's clear that access to the Internet is almost as important as other utilies, such as clean water and heating oil. On the other hand regulation is exactly how broadband rollout has been stifled in the past and present by incumbents, and is at least partly to blame why it's so expensive right now. I want it deregulated and opened up to very serious competition. I also want our go…

> I want it deregulated and opened up to very serious competition. I also want our government to build reliable infrastructure (fiber) as much as is possible. I'm not surprised that you feel torn. Those desires are in direct contradiction with each other. Even if you're referring to splitting infra from service, there will still be regulation. You'll also see law enforcement becoming very interested in the fact that…

I wish we could have more separation of government entities.

Community internet could/should be owned by the community, separate from the government.

It could be structured as a private company, where shares are only owned by people within the community and then they have voting rights. Still community owned, but very separate from the more general government.

Interestingly this would also allow community members to invest in their own internet infrastructure directly.

Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#44

Post by colmvp »

walrus01 wrote: post #41
jawns wrote: post #10

Can I just say how much I love the way public libraries have navigated themselves into the digital age? They are, as this piece points out, very popular places to access computers and the Internet, and many libraries offer a wealth of digital content. I can check out and instantly download e-books and audiobooks and movies from my library. It's certainly conceivable that they might have transitioned less well. There…

> Can I just say how much I love the way public libraries have navigated themselves into the digital age? yes, I also enjoy visiting the library to see the unwashed hobos jacking off to barely legal pornographic websites in a public place.

This seems like an unnecessarily jaded/cynical view.

I'm sure there are lewd incidents that every librarian has had to deal with but I'm also sure that the vast majority of visitors/members are civil and better because of the institution.

Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#45

Post by mankash666 »

lake99 wrote: post #40
drops wrote: post #13

Interesting. I live in a country with a minimum wage of $58 a month (Ukraine) and yet the internet is one of the few things that pretty much anyone can afford: high speed connections (50-100mbps) cost about $2-4; rarely more. Are american high prices the result of scummy pricing on the corporations' side or is it an actual infrastructural issue that prevents the ISPs from providing cheap connections to everyone?

Now I understand why Russian-speakers dominate many gaming communities. I pay around 20$ for an 8mbps connection, with a monthly download limit of about 50GB. Now you know why there won't be Indians competing in global e-leagues for a long time to come.

Do you pay about 1500 INR and still cap out at 50GB a month? I'm sure you get unlimited access for around that

Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#46

Post by Cyph0n »

chatmasta wrote: post #12
jawns wrote: post #10

Can I just say how much I love the way public libraries have navigated themselves into the digital age? They are, as this piece points out, very popular places to access computers and the Internet, and many libraries offer a wealth of digital content. I can check out and instantly download e-books and audiobooks and movies from my library. It's certainly conceivable that they might have transitioned less well. There…

Public libraries are amazingly accessible, but university libraries remain complicit in the ongoing racket of pay-to-read academic literature. Although many university libraries allow guest access during the day, you cannot access their academic subscriptions unless you're on the secure wifi.

Most universities have a proxy service that allows you to access journals and other digital databases from anywhere in the world.

My previous university has one that I have lifetime access to (UAE University) and my current university has an even better collection (GATech).

Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#48

Post by walrus01 »

drops wrote: post #13

Interesting. I live in a country with a minimum wage of $58 a month (Ukraine) and yet the internet is one of the few things that pretty much anyone can afford: high speed connections (50-100mbps) cost about $2-4; rarely more. Are american high prices the result of scummy pricing on the corporations' side or is it an actual infrastructural issue that prevents the ISPs from providing cheap connections to everyone?

1) it costs a great deal less in salary to pay construction workers to install aerial or buried fiber in ukraine. Or to aim point to point microwave.

2) A network engineeering position that might cost a company $115,000/year in the US could be filled for $35,000/year in Ukraine.

3) Eastern european ISPs are much more "Adventurous" in terms of the low cost network equipment they use for core infrastructure. $1500 Mikrotiks in the same role where a US ISP would use a $15,000 Ciscos or Juniper. Building five to six nines uptime core router POPs with fully redundant -48VDC A and B power is not cheap.

Re: Too Poor to Afford the Internet

#50

Post by Cyph0n »

hnburnsy wrote: post #42

Most providers offer low income broadband which offers service for $9.95 per month with no installation/activation or modem rental fees. Cox even includes access to its Wi-Fi hotspot network.

Comcast charges $20 for its cheapest plan (10 Mbps), which increases to $50 after the first year. It's the only option on my area.
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