So, I’ve read a bit about this proposed grid building we’ve heard about from the Obama administration. Several sources have responded with “why” to “it’s not enough” So lets explore answers to those.
I take a little bit of stake in this concept, because, like I talked about in my last major post on here, I take value in seeing how my family received internet, and how it comes along compared to the luxury of availability I enjoy in the city.
Why do we need this?
The why is simple enough. Access. As the talk has been for the last few months since our jobs started falling by the wayside, this may be a time that our country is transitioning from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. This means less jobs for those content with sitting on an assembly line installing car doors, making TVs, or even producing steel bars. This means more sitting in offices, providing healthcare, insurance, web sites, and sales support, by my interpretation. Another side of this is the growing economy around the internet. There are jobs and opportunities that are presented to us today that weren’t a shadow of a thought ten years ago. Expanding this access so people who don’t think the internet is worth that extra cost makes online consumers out of more people as we grow this economy online even more.
It’s not enough.
Reports I’ve seen say the baseline internet we expect to pipe nation wide will top out at 768k. Low DSL speeds. Just this past weekend, I was working on my in-laws’ lower tier Time Warner Cable internet, which tops out at 768k, from the looks of things. After an unfortunate need to fix and update some settings on the router, I had little issue watching Hulu and Youtube shows at a decent clip and quality to be watchable and enjoyable. Is it instant gratification? No. But you will be able to tolerably receive itunes songs, Steam games, and the like. Remember, we all had some sort of dial up access and withstood much more flakiness than these new connections will be able to provide.
What do you guys think? Is this forward progress, or another money waster for our overblown government?