Last week the Daily Yonder posted a detailed and anguished article on the dismal state of rural broadband and the impact it’s having across the country…

The U.S. has failed to deliver on universal high-speed, wired Internet service. The consequences for America’s disconnected are a litany of troubles: economic decline population loss, less access to education, and poorer quality medical care. History is likely to judge us harshly.

It is an article excerpted from a the report Service Unavailable: America’s Telecommunications Crisis by Fred Pilot. I’ll share just one example but know that there are more, if you meet someone who doesn’t know what it’s like.

A prime example of the highly detailed irregularity of landline Internet infrastructure is the case of Jesse Walser, who lives about 20 miles outside of Syracuse, New York, in the town of Pompey. With Time Warner Cable lines about a third of a mile down the road from his house, Walser nevertheless was told by the company that he’d have to pay more than $20,000 to connect his home its network.

If you know all too well what the situation is, the article may at least let you know you’re not alone and/or provide a little historical context.