“Don’t let them drop us!” Landline users protest AT&T copper retirement plan | California hears protests as AT&T seeks end to Carrier of Last Resort obligation.::California hears protests as AT&T seeks end to Carrier of Last Resort obligation.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Rural could mean a km out of town there’s a few km of houses spaced out by an acre or two along a well maintained road.

    Or it could mean over an hour from the nearest town, down first a well maintained road, then a gravel road, then a dirt road surrounded by dense forest and/or lakes/swamp, there’s a community of 6 families each 5km from their neighbours.

    If the total distance is longer than 100km (60 miles), it’ll need a repeater/amplifier, which also needs power.

    At some point it becomes more worthwhile to establish a wireless connection, but even then you either need a satellite (at geosynchronous orbit, which has high latency), a constellation of satellites at a lower orbit, or a series of towers with line of sight of each other (or line of sight plus atmospheric bouncing).

    We’re not talking about the average case, but there are extreme cases that I wouldn’t doubt cost a large amount that will never be recouped via reasonable subscription fees.