• LePoisson@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    But they rolled out electricity, and they rolled out PSTN, so the justification was found in those cases.

    Yeah, the justification was the federal government basically forcing providers to do that. Remember back in 2008 when we handed a bunch of money to telecom companies to expand their networks? Then they laughed at us and just kept the money and basically said fuck you? That also was a part of this act, or at least related to it, since broadband was added to it as an amendment in 2008.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act

    Anyways, point being the companies didn’t roll our electricity and pstn to rural areas out of the goodness of their heart or even a strict profit motive. It took a literal act of congress for it to happen.