i assume this is bc of the tariffs, and the BEAD program would be more affordable if there simply weren't tariffs, but it's probably a good thing to parlay BEAD into more domestic manufacturing
This is a feel good story. Factory jobs in America. The net effect is tax payers are covering the difference in cost between made in USA and made in China or Vietnam. This results in less deployed broadband. Hardware manufacturing has long been offshored due to the difference in cost and our comparative advantage in designing these things versus assembling them. It’s why fabless semiconductor companies are crazy successful and your smartphone doesn’t cost twice as much as it does.
If only we could break the ISP oligopoly through local loop unbundling and not just shower tax dollars on incumbent ISPs. We still have home builders who are burying coaxial cable or even ye olde phone lines in 2023 instead of single mode fiber or conduit. Almost all of the cost of deployment is labor digging or dragging lines not the electronics. No one builds a house with a service line and panel sized for 60 amps, because it’s obsolete. The same build once build right logic should apply to communications.
> Waiting for the HN hivemind to bring down the kabosh and tell me why this is bad.
Well, I saw in the news release that it said Wisconsin and "Pleasant Prairie", so I immediately thought about Foxconn. But with a little bit of investigation, I find that the Foxconn deal was in "Mount Pleasant". This location is at an existing facility (maybe they will expand it?) in an existing industrial park (looks like warehouses and light industrial) about 1 mile north of the Illinois/Wisconsin border.
There is a facility in this industrial park that has a rail spur to an existing rail line and the road into the park already has a connection to Interstate 94 about 1 mile away. The potential nearby workforce is large, the county has an active transportation system, etc.
If it works out as planned it is an excellent use of existing infrastructure.
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[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 34.6 ms ] threadIf only we could break the ISP oligopoly through local loop unbundling and not just shower tax dollars on incumbent ISPs. We still have home builders who are burying coaxial cable or even ye olde phone lines in 2023 instead of single mode fiber or conduit. Almost all of the cost of deployment is labor digging or dragging lines not the electronics. No one builds a house with a service line and panel sized for 60 amps, because it’s obsolete. The same build once build right logic should apply to communications.
Well, I saw in the news release that it said Wisconsin and "Pleasant Prairie", so I immediately thought about Foxconn. But with a little bit of investigation, I find that the Foxconn deal was in "Mount Pleasant". This location is at an existing facility (maybe they will expand it?) in an existing industrial park (looks like warehouses and light industrial) about 1 mile north of the Illinois/Wisconsin border.
There is a facility in this industrial park that has a rail spur to an existing rail line and the road into the park already has a connection to Interstate 94 about 1 mile away. The potential nearby workforce is large, the county has an active transportation system, etc.
If it works out as planned it is an excellent use of existing infrastructure.