Mr. President, infrastructure is not just roads and bridges.

[deminks]

Those are necessary, but so is this. Although we used to call it a superhighway of sorts. American internet speed sucks, unless you pay for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/downloads-are-slowest-in-idaho-study-finds.html?_r=1

POTLATCH, Idaho — Barry Ramsay, who owns a small manufacturing company here between two mountains, remembers the day his Internet connection crashed for several hours. Work crews had to ride up in snowmobiles to discover the problem.

“They said that bears had been rubbing against the towers,” Mr. Ramsay said. In this mountainous state, where some connections depend on line of sight, even snow and fog can disrupt the signals. “These are the kind of problems you probably don’t have in an urban area,” he said.

(snip)

The United States as a whole lags in speed, coming in 25th behind South Korea, which has the fastest speeds in the world. Even Romania clocks in ahead.

(snip)

Indeed, speeds for Idaho’s businesses can be as fast as those anywhere, if customers pay for it. The federal government says Idaho is among the states with the greatest disparity in speeds available in urban areas versus rural areas.

(end snip)

I guess, like in the article, we minions should be happy just to get e-mail, right? That would be the rethuglican response, and with all this bipartisanship, we just need to accept mediocrity? Yes, we can, but I'm waiting for it to download?

[Syrinx]

1. it seems like we have increasing problems with the electrical grid lately, too

[CrispyQ]

2. My electric/gas bill came with a flyer about a program where you can save

money on your energy bill if you sign up to let the electric company turn your air conditioner for a few hours during the day. I'm all for conservation, but this is more about profits than conservation. Instead of using their profits to upgrade the grid to handle more people & more extreme temps, they are preparing us for going without electricity during the day. I can see a time when the corpos will get the energy they need & the residential clients will be put on rolling brown outs.

[99 Percent Sure]

3. And drain pipes. eom

[Javaman]

4. Once upon a time there was a program called the Rural Electrification Program...

I think it's time we do that with the Internet.

Not only bring internet to everyone, but bring high speed net to everyone.

I can dream.