Kim Hart and Sara Fischer for Axios:
Broadband technologies are getting better and faster — but access to them is still concentrated in metro areas and suburbs, leaving vast swaths of the country with marginal service or nothing at all.
Benefits of the broadband advances are mostly going to consumers who already have plenty of options for robust internet connections. Despite efforts to narrow the digital divide, rural areas, small towns and low-income neighborhoods in big cities still struggle to have access to reliable and affordable broadband service.
The Federal Communications Commission last week voted to require broadband service providers to report more detailed data about where their networks are available after criticism that the agency’s data overstates broadband access. The agency also proposed directing $20 billion over 10 years to fund network expansion in unserved places.
Last week, Verizon announced that 5G is now available in parts of four additional cities — Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit and Indianapolis — and says it plans to have 5G service in more than 30 cities by the end of the year. However, its new service in some cities like Chicago has been spotty and limited.
$20 billion is a good start, but “it’s still going to be tough to get coverage everywhere,” said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA, which represents rural, community internet providers.
MacDailyNews Take: As 5G builds out, hopefully it will improve broadband access, options (and, therefore, via competition, pricing) in rural areas, small towns and low-income neighborhoods in big cities.
5G Could be my ticket the hell out of California.
Please make it Florida or Texas, you deserve it…..
Either would be blessing compared to California..fscking dump
Dang…I left Commiefornia long ago. Like after I graduated from college in 91.
5G could be my ticket out of the grips of Comcast!
5G is VERY short range – it requires WAY more towers than 4G. It will be large cities only, so you can forget about rural America…
Yeah, I agree. If 5G is short range and will is the reason rural communities will have coverage, why didn’t 4G work which required fewer towers? I think it is all a bunch of bull to get approvals but the “dream” of 5G everywhere won’t happen any better than 4G solved the problem. Unless governments mandate some kind of coverage it is not going to happen. In the end it is about profit margin, and putting up thousands of 5G transmitters all across Wyoming is not going to cut it.
5G is still a way off, probably at least a year before it is a practical technology. I’ve been a telecommunications engineer for 35 years and 4G was pretty crap at first. In time the base stations will get better range and the costs will come down. About a year or two probably.
So fast that Siri answers you question before you ask it!
The answer for low population areas might be internet over power lines.