Why broadband will continue to fail in the US

With Google announcing it was going into the ISP business or at least into the ISP infrastructure business it looks like maybe we might see more broad band with the promised gigabit connections it might provide. But will this really solve Americas broadband crisis? Guess what IT WONT! Though Google would probably be the first one to go into the areas that are least served (leave and minor city and you can find under served areas) and claim the funds for it why would it? Would that really help them with their goals? These areas have been abandoned by the major ISPs look at Verizon selling off its rural phone lines. Why would they do this? Oh wait FiOS is more expensive to lay in the country and there just is not the money to be made there. So what happens? Well at lot of Americans still live outside the cities! So we get horrible broadband rate. Well lets look back at Google. Sure they could pull into these smaller towns an under covered rural areas but what would they gain? There would be no pressure (hell most of the major telecoms feel stuck in these areas) and at worst they will look like the bad guys as many of these areas are served by local companies that cannot afford to make needed upgrades. Now maybe if Google is just wanting to make the infrastructure this could work but still where is the pressure? It would be most good Google could do and sure would get great PR I mean I can read the headlines now “Google solves broadband issues the government could not!” ok it wouldn’t be that long but you get the drift.

Basically in the end I have this feeling that people outside of the major metropolitan areas are screwed. A year ago wireless was going to save rural broadband but Verizon has 3G in most everywhere but if you leave a city the towers are so sparse the connection is worse than dial-up. No one wants to invest in rural America which used to be seen as the heart of America. Now it has just been forsaken its paying for all the cities junk and never getting any investment.

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Has Apple’s Deal with AT&T saved us all?

Now I know this sounds completely out there. Few people think AT&T offer good service these days. Personally I don’t care about AT&T to much cause I live somewhere they don’t even cover. But lets put that all behind us as that is not what I want to look at today.

A few years ago Apple announced a minor mobile device known as the iPhone. They announced it on AT&T exclusive and everyone has complained about this for the last few years. Now how about we look back to that time and contemplate a different chain of events. What could have happend if Verizon had gotten exclusivity of the iPhone instead of AT&T? Well many times it has been reported about how much AT&T has gained in subscribers thanks to the iPhone. What if AT&T had never got these gains? Would we see these two huge companies AT&T and Verizon dooking it out on the airwaves to get our money? I have this odd feeling had Verizon gotten the iPhone deal we would be seeing once again the monopoly of one phone service. If we go back to when the deal was struck AT&T was not in the position it was not. Sure it was one of hte bigger cell phone companies but it really didnt rivel Verizon at the time. Verizon was king. Now look we got two giants fighting it out!

Now fast forward to this week. We hear that AT&T now has exclusivity on the iPad. What does that really mean though? The iPad is unlocked GSM and uses a micro-sim sure it doesn’t support T-Mobiles band of the wireless spectrum but that doesn’t matter as much as the bigger news. Apple has managed to force AT&T to not only get a lower data rate but also make it not require a contract. Do you think Verizon would have accepted that? Not right now but in a year when the next version of the iPad comes out how much do you want to bet there will be a 4G version which will support all the LTE carriers? What will that mean? Well dataplans will actually have to compete with each other instead of over who has what device.

So what is the moral of this? Well Apple has managed to do something the FCC has failed at doing. They have prevented a Verizon monopoly and actually forced a move into more reasonable rates for Data Plans. But hey lets just ignore that progress and just complain that AT&T. Sure they don’t have 3G anywhere but I can tell you Verizon 3G is nothing to write home about when it comes to actual speed.