"Not only would it seem to be a fairer use of funds but would encourage growth of the small cities and spread the tech grid more evenly."
@kq4ym: I agree. I think highspeed internet to small cities would also help the small businesses grow there. This in-turn would help give a boost to the economy in that area.
@Dana: How does one determine on which cities/rural area should get a boost in the internet speed? Is this decision taken on the population of the town or the economic conditions there? Or, are there any other factors?
Some of the cities cited aren't "tier 1s," though. They're much lower on the broadband food chain, yet they have enough infrastructure and potential to benefit greatly from the local fiber. So in a way, it is not a case of the big getting bigger, but of the midsized getting bigger.
How is this different from a normal ISP that is simply trying to expand its services? I've been seeing many government-funded projects to build networks in rural and not-so-well served areas and those have specific goals, related to universal service.
I definatly think there is a place for this type of competition in the broadband game, it will only help to raise the level of networks in these areas as more business develop and more people move there.
@abdlah, I could not agree more. if the end user (or customer) has no idea the service is even there or what it can do they will be very unlikely to take advantage of it.
Service providers have account exects and sales engineers that go out to customer locations and help them to figure out what services will best fit their needs. Its too early to know if Gigibit Squared and Gig.U are going to have people fill those roles, but I would imagine that would be one of the better ways develop the footprint once the network is in place.
They also have large marketing budgets to help make sure people know the service is there and ready to be used. Hopfully Gig.U and Gigibit Squared will put some effort into marketing their networks as well.
@hounhosp, I think you hit the nail right on the head. The reason to build up these communities is to further develop business interests in the areas they build out the network.
Rural Broadband is a totaly different beast with other challenges all together.
I agree that sensitization would be a critical component in the success of the project. If the end user does not or understand what value preposition there is, it would seem as if nothing has changed.
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The railroad industry does not conjure up high-technology images for most people, but it takes a lot more to keep the trains running on schedule these days than a few guys shoveling coal into a furnace.
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While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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