The Utility of Local Facebook Groups
Two Fun Online Games
Cryptocurrency Finance
James Webb Telescope
Nonfungible Tokens Are Bizarre
Cheap Gadgets I Love
Why You Need a Password Manager
The Metaverse Is Coming!
Elon Musk's 42,000 Satellites
Free Cell Phone Service
Amazon's Cashierless Stores
Facebook Knows What You're Thinking
Tools for Avoiding Scams
I Love My Vaccine
Dangers of Social Media
Free Online Tools
Internet Aids US Insurrection
Artificial Intelligence Gets Real
Confessions of an Internet Addict
My New Toys: Trail Cameras and a Drone
Trump Bans TikTok
Donating Online to Food Pantries
The Internet's Dark Side
Championing Factual News
Coronavirus News Sources: Keeping Up With Daily Developments
Zoom and Other Tools in the Time of Coronavirus
Avoiding Fakes & Frauds on Amazon
Best Fact-Checking Websites
Free Streaming Video Sites
New Streaming Video Services
Best and Low-Cost Earbuds
Beware of Deep Fake Videos
My Hearing Aids Are Cool
The Equifax Settlement
How to Defeat Dynamic Pricing
Google and Facebook Privacy Controls
Don't Be Fooled by Fake Reviews
Don't Be Fooled by Scams
Cameras Are Watching You
HasYour Password Been Hacked?
Is Artificial Intelligence Our Doom?
Voice-Controlled Gadgets
Personal Outsourcing
This Is Cyberwarfare
The Post-Truth Era
Introduction to Blockchain
Carmageddon Is Here
Mobile Payments and Deposits
Welcome to Surveillance Capitalism
Great Websites for Cheap Products
Honoring Fred Rosenberg
The Cyrptocurrency Craze
Voice-Controlled Assistants
Dealing with a Future Without Jobs
Why You Need a Virtual Private Network
How Do You Feel About Being a Cyborg?
Why Artificial Intelligence Is Scary
Google Lens, Amazon Echo, and More Toys
Algorithms Are Us
Best Ways to Spot Fake News
More Options for Cable Cutters
Artificial Intelligence & Neural Nets
Beware of Fake News
Amazon Echo Dot
Driverless Cars Coming Soon
Governments Approve Commercial Drones
The Sharing Economy in Southeastern Iowa
Ad Blocker for Your Web Browser
Virtual Assistants: Siri, Cortana, Alexa
Google Cardboard: Cheap Virtual Reality
Periscope Addiction
Pet, Kid, Keychain Traciers
Google Tips and Tricks
Use Price Alerts to Save Money
Best Gadgets of 2015
Apple TV, Streaming Video Devices
My Favorite Email Newsletters
Peer-to-Peer Lending
3-D Printing
Chromebook, a $150 Laptop
Periscope: Live Video from Around the World
Get Your Questions Answered on Quora
Sling TV — $20 per Month
The Drone Revolution
Bitcoin Mining Flop
Smart Light Bulbs
Revolutionary Apple Watch
Smart Home Gadgets
Buying a Bitcoin Miner
Traveling with Siri
The Sharing Economy: Uber, Airbnb
Storing Your Music in the Cloud
The Internet of Things
Life in Cloud Heaven
2013 Tablet Buyers Guide
What Marketers Know About You
Google Dashboard Knows About You
Stream Video with Google Chromecast
Big Data, NSA, and You
Google's Predictive Search
Bitcoin—Mint Your Own Money
Android Smart TV via $45 Mini PC
MOOCs: Quality Free Online Courses
Beware of Dynamic Pricing
Use Crowdfunding to Raise Money
Tablet Computer Buyer's Guide
Google's Self-Driving Car
Mobile Media/App Stores Compared
Google Nexus 7 vs iPad
Email Follies
Your Million-Dollar Smartphone
Google Drive: Free Cloud Storage
Free and Low-Cost Phone Calls
Google Glasses
Loving iCloud
iPad Wins, Other Tablets Lose
Siri is Revolutionary
Essentials of Computer Backup
Homage to Steve Jobs
Are Your Files Safe in the Cloud?
Amazing Uses of iPhone Camera
Use Carbonite Online Backup
Cloud Services Roundup
Tablet Computer Roundup
Project Watson Wins at Jeopardy
Stream Video by Connecting a Computer to Your TV
The Appeal of Apple TV
Roundup of Streaming TV Devices
Options for Streaming Video to a TV
Dealing with Cell Phone Radiation
Ebook Readers & Tablet Computers
Dreaming of 4G
Google TV
The iPad in Your Future
The Magic of Google Translate
iPhone: There's an App for That
3-D TV and Robots in Your Future
More Goodies from Google
Google Wave — Better than E-mail
Growing Up with the Internet
Bing: Better than Google
Google Voice — Great free service
The Twitter Revolution
Virtualization and You
Death of Newspapers
Netbook Computers
Great New Search Engines
Boxee — Free Online TV
Mozy — Free Offsite Backup
Amazon's Video-on-Demand
Wanting a Kindle
iPhone Love
Better than Google
Cloud Computing and MobileMe
Digg and Other Social Media Sites
Hulu.com: Free TV & Movies
Pandora: Best Source for Streaming Music
Cell Phones Changing
Intro to HDTV
Best Free Phone Resources
Free Online TV: Joost
Movies, TV Go Online
Scary Internet Stories
Facebook
The YouTube Election
Google Street View
Twitter, Twittervsion, and Flickervision fun
E-mail Tricks for Addicts
Cool PDA Phones
Webtop: Free Online Software
Useful Google Tidbits
My Yahoo, RSS, and Blogs
Google Earth
Online Videos
Web 2.0
Crowdsourcing
Virtual Worlds: Second Life
InTrade Predicts the Future
The MySpace Revolution
Wikipedia — A Free Encyclopedia
Wikipedia as Emergent Phenomenon
Wikipedia Lies
Free Calling with Skype
Intro to Podcasts
Intro to File Sharing: BitTorrent
Dangers of Wireless Hotspots
Google Maps
Free Online Credit Reports
Making Money with Your Web Site
Beware of Spoofing and Phishing
Free
Virus and Spyware Protection
Virus, Spyware
Protection -- Part 2
A Brief History of the Internet
The Gadget Goddess
Free Open Source Software
Keeping Your Mac Tuned Up
Starting a
Weblog
Getting Started with RSS
Latest Google Features
Selling on eBay
& Half.com
Safe Online
Shopping
Health-Related Web
Sites
Free Virus
Protection
Google
Culture
Online Photo
Sharing
Intro to GPS
Intro to Weblogs
Avoiding Spyware
Loving Google
News
Testing your
Internet Literacy
Urban Legends and
Hoaxes
Buying and Selling on
Half.com
Personalizing
Yahoo
Stopping
Spam
Useful New
Search Engines
Conspiracy
Theories
Online Nature
Guides
Intro to
Wireless
Yahoo Groups Are Fun
and Useful
The Joys of
Broadband
Free Expert
Help
Asking questions
online
Finding the lowest
price
Movie information
Online
Reference
Rebates
The Internet
bazaar
MP3 music
Noah's Ark and the
Internet
Link Rot
The Geek Report
About this site
Today's News and
weather
Hot tips
|
The Government Wants You to Have Fast, Cheap Broadband
July 2022
I was one of the first persons to sign up for an internet
account when the service was newly arrived in Fairfield back in 1994. I was
thrilled. Until then, the only online option locally was to dial in
long-distance to a service such as Compuserve. Can you imagine? Going online
for an hour a day would have cost, in today's dollars, over $500 per month just
in phone charges.
Back then Lance Yedersberger's one-man company offered me
access for $50 per month, or about $100 in today's dollars. I was delighted to finally
be able to dial in to a local number to access an online service, in
this case the internet, which was an academic network that had only recently become
commercially available to the general public.
I dialed in via a 2,400-baud modem. Can you imagine? That's
2,400 bits per second. My current broadband fiberoptic connection is, by my
calculation, over 415 times faster. But that slow speed in 1994 wasn't a
hindrance because this was before the WorldWideWeb as we know it.
Today it's a different world. We have the Web with an
infinite amount of content and the internet speeds to enjoy it.
In recognition of the important role the internet now plays
in daily life, our federal government is providing funds to help make it more
available to those with low income and to those who live in areas that don't
yet have broadband service. The Affordable Connectivity Program, which launched
December 31, offers a discount of $30 per month for internet service to those
who qualify.
In addition, on May 9 President Biden announced that 20 of
the country's leading internet providers have committed to offering broadband to
those who qualify for no more than $30 per month, including 100-megabits-per-second
service from Mediacom in Iowa.
Yep, that's right. If you take advantage of Mediacom's
$30/month service and the government's $30/month subsidy, you are essentially
getting free broadband internet.
Who qualifies? If you are at or below 200% of the federal
poverty guideline, you qualify. For an individual, that works out to an annual
income of $27,180. The poverty threshold is, of course, higher for households
with more than one person. For example, the guideline for two persons is
$36,620, and $46,060 for three.
According to the government, nearly 40% of households in the
U.S. qualify.
Additional details are at www.affordableconnectivity.gov/do-i-qualify.
Lisco, an internet provider in southeastern Iowa, said that
as of late May they already had about 30 customers taking advantage of this
subsidy.
You are also automatically eligible for the $30 discount if
you receive federal benefits such as food stamps; Medicaid; Special
Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children; Supplemental Security
Income; Veterans Affairs pension and survivors benefits; free and reduced-price
school lunch; federal Pell Grants; and Lifeline.
You can find more details at www.fcc.gov/acp.
To apply for the subsidy, go
to AffordableConnectivity.gov to submit an application or print out a
mail-in application. You will also need to contact your preferred internet
provider to have the discount applied to your bill. You can also apply at GetInternet.gov.
In addition, you may simply be able to apply via your internet provider. Once
you're approved, your internet provider will receive the funds directly.
As part of the application, you will need to prove you
qualify, such as providing your prior year's tax return. More detail is
available at www.affordableconnectivity.gov/how-to-apply/show-you-qualify.
Internet services in southeastern Iowa participating in the
Affordable Connectivity Program include Mediacom, Windstream, CenturyLink, and
Lisco.
The Affordable Connectivity Program is part of the $1
trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which designated
$65 billion for broadband internet. And there's even more good news: in
addition to providing these subsidies, the greater portion of the funding will
go to states to help internet companies build broadband infrastructure in areas
that don't yet have service. And there are many such areas here in southeastern
Iowa.
But don't look for it to happen immediately. States must
first apply for a grant to develop a plan. Then once that plan is submitted and
approved, states will receive money to begin installing broadband
infrastructure in 2024 by providing grants to internet providers.
In addition to supporting internet connectivity, our federal
government also recognizes the importance of everyone having telephone service.
As I wrote in my column last September, there are opportunities for low-cost
and even free cell phone service via Lifeline. See www.lifelinesupport.org.
I'm an addict, of course. The internet has come a long way
since I first began using it in 1994, but one thing has remained unchanged: my
addiction. And for nearly 29 years I've been sharing that addiction with you.
Now the government is supporting us in our addiction. Life is good.
© 2022 by Jim Karpen, Ph.D.
E-mail
Jim Karpen
|
PayPal Fraud, Part 1
Internet Fraud, Part 2
Internet Fraud, Part 3
Suing My Credit Card Company
Bored.Com is fun
Guinness World Records
eHow.Com tells you
how
Free graphics
online
Cheap airfares
Simple, free money
transfer
Government
information
|
|