Legislators Mull Solutions To Indiana's Rural Broadband Problem

[TexasTowelie]

Eighty-four percent of Hoosiers have broadband internet access. Those that don’t live mostly in rural places – where poor connectivity is an economic problem.

The state legislature heard a range of ideas to fix that problem Thursday in their first of three study committee meetings on rural broadband.

Rep. Dave Ober (R-Noble County) says flat or shrinking populations make for tricky economics that will demand multiple solutions.

“It’s not a silver bullet – it’s silver buckshot,” Ober says. “We’re trying to find of all the approaches that make sense to kind of attack this problem of density.”

Read more: https://indianapublicradio.org/news/2017/09/legislators-mull-solutions-to-indianas-rural-broadband-problem/

[catrose]

1. In my rural area (Texas)

Ma and Pa ISPs offered internet. Some were good, some not. Then other companies (Jabber, Rise, etc.) came through and bought them all up, an effective monopoly. And service sucks. You pay more than if you lived 5 miles towards the nearest city. A recent survey showed that many rural people don't have internet. Well, when you can barely reach a website and send email, why would you? The new plans that promise "up to" certain speeds consider their job done if you can actually reach the web, never mind loading a website or sending an email. I hope Indiana has a solution and that it will be widely copied.