While I don't like AT&T and think they are a slimy and unethical company, I do not think forcing them to provide cheap internet access is likely to work.<p>We have plenty of examples where land sharks and slum lords use rent controls as an excuse to avoid providing many things renters ought to take for granted. This is similar in principle. The the lack of financial incentive AT&T and rent-controlled landlords have they are encouraged to provide reliable or effective service.<p>I am just spitballing, but perhaps a system of vouchers usable on internet services, given to people on this SNAP program mentioned in the article could be experimented with. If the government were to pay for part of the voucher and the person wanting the service pays for the rest then ISPs would have normal incentive to service these customers and someone other other than AT&T could move into the market because it makes economic sense, or AT&T could step up their game because they want the money.
Why should they have to? If anything the onious is on us, the consumers, to create an alternative that can revolutionize the market of networking. I wish situations like these, instead of driving people to say "Charge me less", would drive people to make functional alternatives. Mesh networks can easily achieve sub-3Mbps speeds for all users in a fair and relatively free alternative.<p>We have all the technology, we have the legal protection/laws in place, all we need is some people to do it.<p>Lidar for long-range links, high-power relay nodes in the 5GHz range or (for amateur radio operators) using the deregulated 11.4+ GHz bands (with multiple antennas at 150W PEP each), and hard lines where needed, you could easily create a network for the people by the people. The software side is already fully implemented by the many mesh networks around the world.<p>There is also a project called CJDNS [0] that has come up with a system for deriving IP addresses.<p>All of the tools are here for all of us to use and make our world a better, and more accessible, space for all. We just need to put it to real world use.<p>[0] - <a href="https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns</a>
People should read the whole article, this is really ATT deciding to fsck over the small minority of their userbase that shouldn't be fscked over.<p>They should make those service areas totally free. And the FCC shouldn't be holding their feet to the fire not meeting their obligations.<p>The more you make, the more you get for free.