[quote=FlyerInHi]
If i remember it was some rural areas where small businesses still wanted to use dial up for their credit card machines….. time to upgrade to new technology.
Should people in rural area expect subsidized services? Maybe they should pay more to make the business viable for providers.[/quote]
Not as easy as you think, when you consider the real costs.
I found overhead and in-ground power line installation costs.
Overhead lines are about $280,000 per mile, underground are about $1.5million per mile. This is construction cost, not media cost – so it is a good approximation for cable/fiber.
I do wonder if these numbers are a bit ‘pumped up’, however, I have seen other people who have long driveways have to pay to bring the power to their house – in one case $1200 for 60′ – not including the cabling.
The interesting part is that the telcos could convert at their cost and may even come out ahead. It will significantly reduce power consumption (driving all of those telco wires consumes a significant amount of energy) and could get money back on recycling copper.
