Kattt – our download speed is even slower than yours, .84 on the best day! Upload about the same, which doesn’t let you do much of anything. We have an internet “free market” here but it does no good. No internet service provider will go into a small market; it’s just not profitable enough.
At one point in our country’s history, rural electrification was considered the right thing to do – to ensure that all people would realize the benefits of modern society. Now with internet – arguably just as if not more important than power lines – it’s “self reliance” that is advised, resulting in digital deserts. It’s not something we can do on our own. One argument I hear often is that all rural people should crowd into the cities if they want access to this fundamental part of modern life. Imagine how that would impact our current epidemic. But it is easier to control and manage the population that way. Some people who argue this are utterly clueless that there is no affordable housing available for all these people. Want some more homeless in your state/city?
I think our state services in Alaska are mostly really excellent, and very responsive to the public, although there are fewer services than elsewhere. Good government can be done, but I don’t know how to make it do so, maybe a mgmt issue. I’d love to see Alaska step in and be an ISP but that won’t happen in this budget climate. I’ll be lucky if my road gets plowed two weeks after a storm! (Right now it’s 4-5 days). Our self reliance is just doing without.
