I must thank Barack Obama for this. I never expected something like this so soon but these are apart of the stimulas package in front of congress at the moment. If the eco. stimulas package passes this would make the millions of houses without broadband internet would be able to get broadband internet setup thanks to universal broadband and we would not have to worry about ISPs deligating what websites and services on the internet we can use.

I had might doubts about Obama, and still dont like his fight against abortion and gun rights, but I love how has already started pushing the USA into the correct direction.

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/01/26/eca-net-neutrality-universal-broadband-sections-stimulus-package-are-good-gamers

Um... it's not quite as nice as you seem to think. It's providing an incentive for US companies to put 5 year-old garbage infrastructure in remote locations. I mean, it's good for the people who have no better options but I have this feeling that a lot of it will be outdated pretty fast (if it isn't already by the time it's laid).

And there aren't even enough users out in these remote areas to make such a thing profitable. So essentially the government will be throwing money away as the ISP's abandon the lines once any maintance picks up, unless the government is willing to foot the bill again.

the gov will foot the bill for the lines to be placed, once lines are placed there will be no reason for ISPs to not keep service as more lines = more money. This is why the gov wants to do this. It creates jobs adding several million broadband users.

It is estimated that each house would cost the gov about $6,250 each for broadband to be made available, this includes all the new cabling, poles, new servers for the ISPs to handle increased load, etc.

Still this would create thousands of jobs which is the point of instating universal broadband.

The richest country in the world can't invest anything in its broadband infrastructure? Isn't this a financial investment as well since broadband internet is good for business?

Just because the government isn't cutting taxes doesn't mean that it isn't doing things that are helpful for business.

Net neutrality ey, my opinion of Obama has tripled in a good way. Wish Uk gov would do something sensible like this.

If the UK gov sees the US improving a ton over the previous presidents they will follow suit.

@NintendoMan I don't think internet acess is as much of an issue here , but I live right beside london what do I know.

Edit : Sweet irony ... , my connection went down just before i hit the "post" button but it doesn't happen too often.

It's simply not cost effective at this point over an area as large as the United States that isn't as densely populated as other countries.

Combine that with the fact that our cable companies are already dragging their heels on technology in the first place and it becomes an even larger problem.

We don't need to be paying millions of dollars to build poor infrastructure in far off places with maybe 10,000 people.  It's not feasible today and re-laying better infrastructure in those places will still be unfeasible in the foreseeable future.  The government needs to fund research to look into better technologies for those areas that are easier and more cost efficient to deploy IMO.

If we don't have the current tools to solve a problem correctly then we shouldn't waste money trying to solve it using the current tools, we should invest in better tools.

But who's to say that these tools will ever be availible?  or if they do become availible how do we know they'll be more cost effective than the one's we have availible right now ?. Delaying infastructure in the hope that you might find a better way to create it in the future is a gamble and considering how neccasery/useful the internet is to the average developed country individual it could be considered to big a risk to continue waiting..I think people deprived of proper internet access is a poverty or sorts.