Doc NTIA lead nominee criticizes "woke" and "socialist" fiber broadband subsidy

https://broadbandbreakfast.com/incoming-ntia-chief-doesnt-like-beads-fiber-preference-low-cost-mandates-2/

by walrus01 • 1 year ago

42 57 1 year ago

broadbandbreakfast.com

duxup2• 1 year ago

"woke" has no meaning these days. It's just a placeholder for "I don't like it".

walrus016• 1 year ago

"woke" and "socialist" is everything to the left of hunting the homeless for sport, these days.

OccamsMirror• 1 year ago

I think you mean hunting them for biodiesel, ala the Butterfly Revolution?

yes_really5• 1 year ago

Is this post an instance of that?

The following requirements were part of the program [1]. Are you really unable to see how this can fairly be described as "woke"?

In addition, states had to prove that they promoted participation from minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and “other socially or economically disadvantaged individual-owned businesses.” They also had to create a Five-Year Action Plan that required collaborating with unions and “underrepresented communities,” including prisoners, LGBTQI+ individuals, women, and people of color.

[1] https://www.thefp.com/p/inside-biden-broadband-boondoggle-tr...

UltraSane• 1 year ago

No, it is a tool for demagogues to demonize things they oppose.

imoverclocked• 1 year ago

It's a dog whistle for followers of those same demagogues.

hooverd2• 1 year ago

people say woke with a hard-r nowadays

Vaslo2• 1 year ago

Nah, people with woke are just the winners right now, and you can’t stand it.

yes_really5• 1 year ago

No, woke is well understood to be about identity politics.

The following requirements were part of the program [1]. Are you really unable to see how this can be described as "woke"?

In addition, states had to prove that they promoted participation from minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and “other socially or economically disadvantaged individual-owned businesses.” They also had to create a Five-Year Action Plan that required collaborating with unions and “underrepresented communities,” including prisoners, LGBTQI+ individuals, women, and people of color.

[1] https://www.thefp.com/p/inside-biden-broadband-boondoggle-tr...

walrus016• 1 year ago

You seem so concerned about correcting other people on your personal definition of "woke" that you've copied and pasted the exact same comment into two separate places in this thread.

efnx4• 1 year ago

Kinda sounds like they want to be able to give more money to the muskrat through subsidies for starlink instead of focusing on fibre (fibre would be a better investment), while also being able to charge whatever they want, while also “owning the libs”.

nitwit0054• 1 year ago

It's possible, but more likely it's the issue of wireless providers who have tried to make dubious claims about speeds and coverage to claim government funds: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-02-16/fcc-invest...

esseph4• 1 year ago

I think you're just throwing a link out without understanding the topic in the title.

It's talking about opening up scoring system for BEAD to let the best technology for the market win based on features and costs.

Right now it is heavily weighted for fiber, and is done in a way that wouldn't require 25% matching funds for something like the middle of Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, etc.

But if you want to fiber up, say, Alaska - you're going to need a lot more money than $45Bn for just /that/ state alone. That's a lot of tax dollars better spent elsewhere when other sufficient technologies exist.

walrus016• 1 year ago

WISPA in particular has been strongly anti-fiber and lobbying that things like 50 x 10 Mbps on a contended-access wireless point to multipoint system is good enough.

https://www.wispa.org/

beeflet• 1 year ago

I would be more willing to accept that state of affairs if StarLink had better competition.

bitshiftfaced2• 1 year ago

If compared to the alternative, Musk makes more money, but then substantially more of the underserved population get access to high speed Internet, would you consider that to be bad?

efnx4• 1 year ago

I would rather have fibre built out as a utility. People can always opt for starlink or whatever wireless they want on their own dime, but I think tax dollars should pay for infrastructure to be built in the places we live.

tbrownaw• 1 year ago

… all kinds of left-wing priorities on the program that just divert resources away from the overall goal of closing broadband gaps. This is going to make the program less cost effective, and it's going to undermine its goals.”

So it's complaints about the details rather than the general idea.

Also, that title doesn't match the article title.

rhinoceraptor• 1 year ago

I guess "equity", meaning running fiber to rural areas, even if they usually lean red, means "woke"?

Or is it that "woke" now just means any internet infrastructure that isn't Starlink?

cozzyd• 1 year ago

Any ISP leader too timid to do a salute is too woke

threeseed• 1 year ago

Yes she specifically called out the fact that they were favouring fiber.

The act defines an "underserved area" as having less than 100/20 speeds.

Which Starlink doesn't meet: https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1400-28829-70

rayiner2• 1 year ago

No, that’s not what it means: https://www.thefp.com/p/inside-biden-broadband-boondoggle-tr...

In addition, states had to prove that they promoted participation from minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and “other socially or economically disadvantaged individual-owned businesses.” They also had to create a Five-Year Action Plan that required collaborating with unions and “underrepresented communities,” including prisoners, LGBTQI+ individuals, women, and people of color.

If you support incorporating race and identity group preferences into government infrastructure projects, just own that instead of obfuscating.

hooverd2• 1 year ago

Very little proof that woke did this vs. Carr just saying so. it sounds like most holdup was at the state level.

dashundchen2• 1 year ago

Yes, if you are funding a program to get broadband to underserved areas, including rural and low income populations, it's reasonable to require a plan for outreach so that those groups know they can connect. Why have a program if people don't know about it?

They didn't come up with program out of nowhere, it's been well studied those groups had less connectivity and broadband availability.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10688393/

I'm not sure what your point is here besides that you dislike inclusion. The point of the program is to level the playing field by offering broadband where it might not normally have been profitable to expand.

Outreach shouldn't slow anyone down. The cost of doing some marketing and data analysis is probably miniscule compared to the actual infrastructure build out.

yesbut• 1 year ago

Sounds like these people are only interested in awaking the spectre haunting thr US.

achierius• 1 year ago

Critical support to Comrade Musk in his mission to destroy the West

walrus016• 1 year ago

https://theonion.com/fbi-uncovers-al-qaeda-plot-to-just-sit-...

mindslight• 1 year ago

"King" Krasnov and Honored Court Jester Muskow.

pasttense01• 1 year ago

Generally it's economic to install broadband in urban areas, but not in many rural areas--so the rural areas need to be subsidized--and rural areas are the least likely to be woke and/or socialist.

scarab92• 1 year ago

Why should rural areas be subsidised?

No one is making you chose to live there, plus you get cost of living savings from being there rather than in expensive urban real estate.

Also, Starlink isn’t all that much more expensive than fibre.

walrus016• 1 year ago

Why should rural areas be subsidised?
No one is making you chose to live there, plus you get cost of living savings from being there rather than in expensive urban real estate

This same argument could have been, and was used against funding for rural electrification and power generation dam construction during the depression and new deal era 90 years ago, which is one of the reasons why deepest Appalachia and much of the rural mountain western states now have grid electricity outside major cities.

protocolture2• 1 year ago

IIRC Fish Lake Township in the US with 900 residents was wired up before BEAD.

And WISPs can be good too, its just a matter of cowboy lottery.

protocolture2• 1 year ago

I have been seeing lots of seppostani ISP people railing against BEAD.

But like, if I had to choose between a keynesianish narrow targeting of government funds to reward local ISP's, and the Australian style big government telco monopoly it would be no contest.

I think BEAD opponents need to think strategically. If they get rid of BEAD, and fail to meet broadband demand, what will the next democrat government do? Assuming there is one.

kmeisthax• 1 year ago

Fiber is woke now

bastard_op• 1 year ago

Last time Trump installed Ajit Pai, the ultimate telecomm shill into that job, and you know the telecoms all wrote checks to pay him to remove all this hurt to their bottom line. Junk fees and overcharges for everyone again!

Doc NTIA lead nominee criticizes "woke" and "socialist" fiber broadband subsidy

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