Web Work May Not Be As Portable As You Think
May 15th, 2007 (9:00am) Mike Gunderloy 8 CommentsTweet This
Ah, the life of the web worker. All you need is your laptop and a change of clothing, and you could drive or fly most anywhere on a moment’s notice, plug in, and be on the job. We’re the digital bedouins, the wave of the future, the happily rootless high-tech wanderers.
Well, not so fast – at least, not if your idea of “most anywhere” includes the rural parts of the United States of America. If your memory extends far enough, you may recall that the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the 2002 farm bill allocated a batch of money to bring broadband to rural areas in the US. Congress has been holding hearings on this, and the results have been fairly dismal. The US still trails many other countries in broadband penetration, and it’s not making substantial progress.
Meanwhile, rural internet users are increasingly getting caught in political struggles between big telecommunications companies who want to sell off less-profitable operations and unions who profess to stand for “high speed internet for all” but who undoubtedly have a stake in preserving their own jobs as well. On the ground, this translates to a state of technological stagnation: in some areas you might find DSL service, or cable modems, or even the occasional high-speed wireless carrier, but it’s just as likely that the folks in the heartland are still on dial-up.
If you’re a big fan of city living, then you may not feel a personal stake in rural high-speed internet. But I personally still dream of the rootless life of traveling around and seeing large chunks of this country. It would be nice if the telecommunications infrastructure would catch up with that dream.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
Definitely US is trailing the rest of the world in terms of broadband penetration, really it’s a surprise to me… I would gather with a silicon valley in his backyard, the gap will be shorten.
The last time I read, Europe has one of the highest broadband users, and in Asia, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong & Singapore are leading the way.
As someone who lives in Northern Vermont, I know all too well how lacking high-speed internet really is (and how expensive it can be when it’s actually available). We’re able to get DSL and Cable in town pretty much anywhere in the state now, and wireless has gotten some decent penetration (primarily from the company that my husband works for, which is actively installing new wireless infrastructure all over the place up here), but if you get outside of town, there’s virtually no broadband available (with the exception of wireless if you’re lucky). In some of the larger towns you can find wi-fi hotspots, but even those are few and far-between (the one that I can access from my office won’t automatically show up on a PC, so unless you know it’s there, you aren’t able to access it, and then it requires a fair amount of setup — lucky for me, I have a Mac :).
I’m lucky enough to be in town at the moment, so I have DSL at home. But, since we’re considering a move out of town within the next year or so, broadband access is at the top of our list for finding a new property. There is a new state-wide initiative that they’re planning to get broadband AND cell phone coverage to everywhere in Vermont (good luck with some of those places). Hopefully it will come sooner rather than later!
I just spent a year living in the mountains of Panama (yes, Central America) and while I couldn’t get a phone line to the location – I could get 1MB up/down wireless Internet and was able to run my business fine with email, VoIP, etc. Crazy that broadband is available in such remote spots in a “third world” country but not available in the rural US. Of course the US has a much larger area to cover.
I just spent 3 day on the rural road and access was a problem. Almost all small towns have WiFi of some kind if you can find it. Since WiFi has such short range you almost have to be sitting on top of it. I have EVDO but Verizon has hardly any native coverage in either MN or WI so that it was worthless 35 minutes into my trip.
It’s a problem and I sure wish the politicians would get on with a rural broadband inititive for real. If we can put electricity into every nook-n-cranny of the country we should certainly be able also do broadband where you don’t necessarily have to string wire.
Come to New Zealand instead, it’s much better looking… :-D
Out here, its either dial-up or Satellite for me. At eighty bucks a month, Wildblue has me tight in their grip. Oh the humanity.
I spend a lot of time in the rural Heartland. I find that internet access is very hit/miss. For example, my parents live in a tiny rural Kansas town of 150 people, 30 miles from the closest town of more than 600 people. Their town has FIBER TO THE HOUSE. Telephone/cable/ISP all provided on one line by one company. I can only wish I had access to that level of service, and I have lived in Denver and Lincoln, NE for the past 11 years.
As for travelling about, I have pretty low expectations, and am surprised when I DO find wireless.
Why do you state “unions who profess to stand for “high speed internet for all” but who undoubtedly have a stake in preserving their own jobs as well”?
Obviously Unions have a stake in preserving decent jobs but that doesn’t make the work they are doing to fight for affordable high speed internet any less important. If people check out the web site you link to, CWA’s Speed Matters Campaign (http://www.speedmatters.org) they will see well documented positions and some real efforts not only to stop redlining, but to push for state and federal legislation. They do more than “profess” — they are putting a huge amount of effort and resources into making this a reality. They are working in several states to get legislation passed and recently testified at fedral hearings on the issue.