Biden đang mất internet

-----

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Tom Hazlett describes Biden’s broadband boondoggle (việc làm vô ích, việc làm lãng phí thời gian). A slice:

Included in the bipartisan package (gói cứu trợ) are broadband-deployment subsidies (trợ
cấp). Mr. Biden asked for $100 billion. The Republicans and Democrats compromised (thỏa hiệp) at $65 billion in the “Infrastructure 1” package. Most of that, $42 billion, is slotted for subsidies to rural communications networks, promising (hứa) to conquer (chinh phục) the “digital divide.” (chia rẽ kỹ thuật số)

This is doubtful. The government has already expended at least $200 billion (in 2021 dollars) on the “universal service fund” established by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Most of the money was meant to extend networks (mạng) that serve rural areas, but some was also allocated to schools and libraries, health-care facilities and low-income mobile-phone users.

This money had little impact on network infrastructure (cơ sở hạ tầng mạng). In 2011 the Federal Communications Commission found that 19 million people, living in seven million households, couldn’t get state-of-the-art broadband service. Ten years later, despite another more than $50 billion in subsidies for high-cost networks, the number in underserved areas was as many as 30 million, according to Mr. Biden.

Bài trước: Châu Âu già cỗi