RE: Muni Fiber (was: Re: last mile, regulatory incentives, etc)

[Nathan Eisenberg <nathan () atlasnetworks us>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: joshua.klubi () gmail com [mailto:joshua.klubi () gmail com]
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 2:10 AM
> To: Owen DeLong; Frank Bulk; Jay Ashworth
> Cc: NANOG
> Subject: Re: Muni Fiber (was: Re: last mile, regulatory incentives,
> etc)
>
> But they also deserve to have or enjoy the benefits that comes with
> living in the big cities
 
I grew up in a rural area served by dialup for the first 15 years of my life, so please don't misunderstand what I'm 
about to say.  No, they don't.

Living in a rural area is a different set of value propositions than living in the Big City, and we shouldn't pretend 
otherwise.  Do people living in the big cities reap the benefits of living in the country?  No ambient noise, no air 
pollution, low crime rates, neighbors you know and can trust your children with?  No, they don't.

That isn't to say that broadband technology won't (or shouldn't) find ways of serving people in rural areas with 
increasingly usable levels of throughput while decreasing jitter and loss; it already is (and should), and the 
situation is constantly improving.  But I think it's a mistake to say that people who have made the decision to live in 
the Big City should expect to enjoy the same benefits as people who have made the decision to live in rural towns, and 
vice versa.  They'll never be the same, and unless I'm very much mistaken, that's actually OK.

Nathan Eisenberg