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On July 15 in Oklahoma, Obama announded ConnectHome

Posted: Jul 26, 2015

describing it as: … a new initiative with communities, the private sector, and federal government to expand high speed broadband to more families across the country. ConnectHome is aimed at low-income areas with little broadband uptake, expanding several earlier federal programs. The headlines are about connecting the poor to the modern convenience of the internet, but they don’t mention who’s paying for it. As with most federal programs, you are. Is ConnectHome worth the costs, and what are they? So far, the ConnectHome website is thin on details. (It’s even thinner on purchase options; more about that in a moment.) The White House announcement states only that ConnectHome will be grant-funded, to the tune of $150 million. However, there is nothing on how the grants themselves will be funded. I presume that new or redirected HUD grants, rather than FCC-mandated taxes, are a possibility. The announcement says little about how these grants will be administered and spent, other than via EveryoneOn and US Ignite (more about those entities below). pjmedia.com ;

"Free" Internet for some. Free computers, free Internet, - free healthcare, is this a

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great country or what?

What do you think about schools assigning homework - get over it

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Kids who do not have home internet are very disadvantaged. Another way to keep the poor down is to challenge them at every turn. One of our local internet providers is offering reduced rate internet access to employees of a company that was recently shutdown due to outsourcing to China.

In that case, this will be used as an excuse to raise - property taxes. I can foresee in the future

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govt could easily require you to take off the security on your server so these new neighbors can really have high-speed internet. I had to call Comcast to set my WiFi to block out piggyback hotspots.

This really cheeses me off. Every time my net bill is - raised, my gas or electric bill, water bill, etc.

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I cut back on groceries or something else to make up the difference. I'm tired of it. Why bother working if the fruits of my labor will be given away?

This is why the middle class is disappearing. Rising - costs, taxes, poor job growth,

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etc.

Mitt Romney type capitalists who outsource to China - nm

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x

Property taxes are partially to fund education - so, yeah, that would make sense

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xx

If your local company offers reduced rates, that great. That's not - government, that's business.

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"Do it for the children" always works. At some point, I will have no paycheck left.

More redistribution. Not a word on how to pay for this, - but hidden taxes for sure.

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We might as well give our paychecks directly to the government.

That's part of BO's plan - which causes

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a disincentive to work hard or try to better oneself. He'll let the slackers and losers have more and more, which gives them no reason to have a job or develop self-worth. Plus, nice neighborhoods will be forced to include undesirables. Dreams from his father. Remember?

I agree wholeheartedly! - nm

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nm

I wonder how much my Internet bill will go up to pay - for this. I know the lefties

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will be all for this, so let them pay for it. Oh wait, we don't get a choice.

Here is the full article... - On July 15 in Durant, Oklahoma,

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President Obama announced ConnectHome, describing it as:

… a new initiative with communities, the private sector, and federal government to expand high speed broadband to more families across the country. ConnectHome is aimed at low-income areas with little broadband uptake, expanding several earlier federal programs. The headlines are about connecting the poor to the modern convenience of the internet, but they don’t mention who’s paying for it. As with most federal programs, you are.

Is ConnectHome worth the costs, and what are they?

So far, the ConnectHome website is thin on details. (It’s even thinner on purchase options; more about that in a moment.) The White House announcement states only that ConnectHome will be grant-funded, to the tune of $150 million. However, there is nothing on how the grants themselves will be funded. I presume that new or redirected HUD grants, rather than FCC-mandated taxes, are a possibility. The announcement says little about how these grants will be administered and spent, other than via EveryoneOn and US Ignite (more about those entities below).

How have existing programs worked? Some digging is required for the answer. Connect America (sort of the larger program including ConnectHome) claims:

Since 2009, the President has been delivering on a comprehensive plan to connect America — from our schools, to our homes, to our businesses. Federal government investments have led to the deployment or upgrading of well over 100,000 miles of network infrastructure, while 45 million additional Americans have adopted broadband.

This statement assumes (1) the Federal government participated, (2) positively, in what was (3) almost solely capital expenditures by the private sector that (4) encouraged broadband adoption — the sort of Federal credit-grabbing familiar to readers of this site.

Broadband construction is subsidized by you, though. Here’s a quick précis of the tangled web of Internet construction subsidies that hide the real costs from taxpayers and consumers. (Skip ahead if Federal buzzword bingo gives you a headache.)

The Universal Service Fund (USF) is collected by ISPs, telephone, and cable companies from subscribers — it’s a line item on your bill. USF subsidizes communications construction to schools, libraries, and now, rural areas. Funds flow through the non-profit Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), the administrator designated by the Federal Communications Commission.

USF expenditures are also designated as “Connect America” — though I can’t find any legislation authorizing this change. USF also covers E-Rate, the Rural Health Care Support Mechanism, etc. That’s just one program; there are dozens.

Back to ConnectHome: it’s built on the example of Connect2Compete, which is also under the Connecting America emblem — the White House is big on multiple, partially redundant initiatives. Under Connect2Compete, the non-profit EveryoneOn, via lots of arm-twisting by the Federal government, used the National School Lunch Program as a template for expanding free and subsidized Internet to K-12 students at home.

Many of the existing low-cost programs are underwritten by the cable companies themselves, a stealth subsidy by existing subscribers or shareholders.

It’s fair to argue that some or most of these Connect2Compete private-sector costs were borne as unofficial lobbying/PR expenses, currying favor before the FCC and the White House as Comcast acquired NBCUniversal and attempted to assimilate Time-Warner.

Connect2Compete offers various packages to eligible persons, mostly at $10/month plus tax (different companies have different offers). How successful has it been? Under Connect2Compete, Comcast says they signed up 450,000 families over four years, though the report gives no statistics on cancellations or churn.

That’s some low millions of dollars in lost revenue to Comcast, assuming some percentage of subsidized subscribers would have bought $20-30 month cable Internet service. Other cable companies will have similar expenses. Compared to the $16-18 million a year Comcast has spent on direct lobbying during the Obama administration, these costs are noise-level (but not free).

Unlike Connect2Compete, with its subscriber/shareholder subsidies, ConnectHome is taxpayer-funded — a fact carefully not in the headlines. The ConnectHome press release claims it “will initially reach over 275,000 low-income households,” but says nothing about duration or sign-up, and you have to read deep to find there are hard costs.

From the press release:

[ConnectHome will] provide communities with the flexibility to spend portions of their Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants on local broadband initiatives and associated connectivity enhancements, including approximately $150 million dedicated to the current competition.

That’s $545.45 per assisted family given that 275,000 figure, assuming $150 million is the total cost. Directly attributable Federal overhead will be 25% to 50% more, and HUD’s record of efficiency isn’t great, so this estimate could be low.

So — it’s not particularly competitive with the $14.95/month ($179.40/year, before taxes) DSL-only offering from AT&T, which includes AT&T presumably making a profit. The mainstream media headlined ConnectHome as giving free Internet to the poor, a misstatement or category error we see all too often.

I guess that's why Comcast raises rates every year. - Truthhurts

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When they raise rates, the "taxes on the services" go up, too. So if they're raising rates "only" $4 a month, you wind up really paying more than that with the tax increase, too.

Between the local, state, and federal taxes on a Comcast bill, the taxes alone are almost $16 a month. That's just shy of $200 a year extra.

I know, I have Comcast Internet. I canceled cable because - they keep raising the rates.

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There's nothing on TV anyway. I do have Netflix. My cell phone bill is the same way, hidden taxes. I'd get rid of my internet if I didn't work at home, honestly.

I'm sure the recipients will be using the internet to take online courses, keep informed of world events, stay connected with loved ones, right? (no porn access or anything).

I hope so, because I’m paying for it.

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