Yes you make some great points and I don’t want to minimize the struggle against state regulations here. My main point was that many technologies themselves are highly conducive to decentralization. To get there you need people to want it; and you need to not go to prison for trying it. The cultural and political hurdles seem more serious than the technological hurdles - this is what I wanted to convey.
On the topic of the community ISPs, they often end up using wireless mesh networks, so the cabling access isn’t always as big of an issue as it used to be.
I’m always the engineer who takes the project that seems bound to fail and nobody else wants; I’ve literally made a living off of getting in over my head and then solving the problem anyways. I’m not sure
I underestimate difficulty as much as I understate it generally… but it is a thing I’m prone to either way.
I would be interested in the real world performance of professionally managed wide-area mesh networks. My instinct is that they wouldn't have the stability or reliability to match a fixed line, especially in less densely populated areas. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong on that.
You're probably right that most of the technical issues are, in theory, solvable. Adoption is always the hard part, of course.
Yes you make some great points and I don’t want to minimize the struggle against state regulations here. My main point was that many technologies themselves are highly conducive to decentralization. To get there you need people to want it; and you need to not go to prison for trying it. The cultural and political hurdles seem more serious than the technological hurdles - this is what I wanted to convey.
On the topic of the community ISPs, they often end up using wireless mesh networks, so the cabling access isn’t always as big of an issue as it used to be.
I’m always the engineer who takes the project that seems bound to fail and nobody else wants; I’ve literally made a living off of getting in over my head and then solving the problem anyways. I’m not sure
I underestimate difficulty as much as I understate it generally… but it is a thing I’m prone to either way.
State regulations are the only check that can succeed to protect the individual.
The issue, in the US particularly is deregulation and the moratorium on anti-trust law enforcement.
Congress is captive to industry.
That won't change in your lifetime, and the decline of the US will continue.
I would be interested in the real world performance of professionally managed wide-area mesh networks. My instinct is that they wouldn't have the stability or reliability to match a fixed line, especially in less densely populated areas. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong on that.
You're probably right that most of the technical issues are, in theory, solvable. Adoption is always the hard part, of course.