Obama: Broadband, Computers Part of Stimulus Package

[BlueJessamine]

Source: PC World

Grant Gross, IDG News Service

Rolling out broadband and putting more computers in schools will be pieces of a massive economic recovery package proposed by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, he has announced.

Obama, in a radio address Saturday, told listeners that he will push for the largest government-funded infrastructure program since the Interstate highway system in the 1950s as a way to stimulate the struggling U.S. economy. Obama's radio address was short on details, but the program could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Obama's plan will include funds to make public buildings more energy efficient, repair roads and bridges and modernize schools. His plan for schools is to repair aging buildings, make them energy efficient and install new computers in classrooms, he said. "To help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools," Obama said in the address.

The plan will also include rolling out broadband, both to places where it isn't available and to health-care facilities, Obama said. It is "unacceptable" that the U.S. ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption, according to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), he said.



Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/article/155118/obama_broadband_computers_part_of_stimulus_package.html

[Phred42]

1. Can he NATIONALIZE COMCAST while he's at it?

Anything has to be better
:shrug:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Oh, that's rich.

What he could do to endlessly fuck with Comcast is pass a ruling in the FCC that sets a limits on how many customers can be on a loop, before they have to split the loop. I know a Comcast Line Monkey and he told me a story about splitting a loop that had 900 customers on it. He also said that there were loops that were more overloaded.

Comcast does not care. Even with Martin, the eternal butt boy of the telcos, running the FCC, Comcast has gotten away with murder.

[Doctor_J]

2. About fucking time

This can probably be done with $(one Iraq-week)

[dkf]

3. Shouldn't we go wireless already?

I know it is easier to install cell phone towers than to wire phone lines. I'd think broadband would be similar. And I can't imagine little kids need a whole lot of security for their work.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. Nah.

Fiber to the node, or in a perfect world, fiber to the home. They could rip down all that aging and rotten-insulated copper and sell it for scrap. Fiber is cheaper per foot to buy than copper. It is just that every time a CLEC says "fiber", the Wall Street analysts have an attack of the vapors.

Remember: in The New Capitalism, the dirtiest words you can say is "Capital Investment". Which is how capitalism is supposed to create healthy economies.

[formercia]

9. Fiber is also more secure

and has a much higher bandwidth than Copper.

I worked on the first transatlantic fiber optic cable. They weren't even coming close to utilizing the full bandwidth of the single mode fiber they were using at the time. Fiber can operate in the picosecond pulse range.

[Dappleganger]

4. I would love to see most of the schools in the South go with solar energy...

Every single school in this area (Florida) should be converted over to solar as their main source of energy (with a backup of something else). What could be more forward-thinking than that?? Do the same with all of the public buildings (libraries, courts, municipal offices) too!

[Blacktuna]

5. I think this guy is dead on

I love Obama and what he is doing so far.. putting everything in simple terms.. this guy makes me bullish.

[WePurrsevere]

8. The landlines in rural American are often awful & in way to many areas

broadband isn't available.

We would LOVE to have broadband. We're 1/4 of a mile away from cable and DSL even less. When we were looking at buying this house we called the phone company to check availability of DSL and were told no problem and that cinched the deal. After we moved in and a month later the phone company finally acknowledged that we were just a bit to far to get DSL... we still get mailings from them trying to sell us DSL.

With some of the stimulus money we got early this Summer we bought a satellite internet system figuring it would be cheaper then the 3 landlines we had (which it is) and better quality connection (which it is when it's working right). It's not dependable though and there are things we can't do because of the lag time (like VOIP).

Heck, we'd like to go to cell phone but the reception here, especially in our house for some reason, is darn near non-existent even with a new tower nearby. The landlines out here have been spliced so often, the phone company says it's voice quality (LoL.. barely at times) and we were told that the electric company won't acknowledge a problem on their end that is partly to blame for our horrible landlines. To top it all off you almost have to get a long distance and regional package because of the way the calling area is set up... a cell phone would be cheaper, if it worked right.

Anyway, I half kidding told DH this Summer when we bought the satellite internet system that the contract was for 2yrs which should get us near to the time when broadband will finally be available up here... cool.. maybe I was right. 8-)

The computers in schools and improving them in general will also be an excellent improvement. Our children are our future and they need every advantage they can get in a global marketplace. :)

[no limit]

10. I'm so fucking glad that he's going to be our president

I can't imagine what would be going on if McCain had been elected.