[FRIAM] The Last Mile, again

[Nick Thompson]

Dear friends and relations,  

 

There is a movement afoot to bring broad band to us here in the mosquito
infested bog.  A group of locals is forming a for=profit company to bring
internet (25/3) to hundreds of subscribers in our hilly, rural town.  They
will put 4 "Radwin" transmitters atop 150 foot towers on two local hill tops
with smaller repeaters as necessary.  The transmitters look for all the
world like Mac Powerbooks.   Each house will have a waffle sized receiver.
The plan for 200 dollar initial buy-in cost and a one hundred dollar per
month subscription cost for UNLIMITED service at the advertised rate.  (No
"up to".)  I now pay about a hundred dollars a month for a Verizon jetpack
which pays for only ten gigs of data.  To stay within that limit I have to
turn off anything that moves on the internet, and go to the local library to
get podcasts, movies, or to update software, or do a cloud backup.  

 

In short, I am enthusiastic about the idea.  What's wrong with it?  And if
nothing is wrong with it, why haven't  all you Eldorado folks done it
already.  Go ahead.  Rain on my parade.   I asked them if they were afraid
that Verizon would get religion and put in DSL at the last moment just to
put them out of business.   Their response was that  local DSL service is so
crappy that it probably wouldn't make any difference.  They say their real
competitor is Elon Musk who is planning a vast satellite service that will
light up everyone in the universe

 

I gather you have all been suffering gale force winds and duststorms.  Ugh.
We, for our part, have had seven snowfalls since we got here. (All minor,
but still, relentlessly gray and chilly) The weather broke this weekend and
the garden is beginning to be populated.   I hope the equivalent break is
happening for you.  

 

Miss you lots, 

 

Nick  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

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