Where the Cloud Rises From the Sea

 Area 1:

Ingrid Burrington covers the remote submarine cable termination in Point Arena, California. While it provides a high-speed internet link to Japan, the local town doesn't have access to that resource.  

Connectivity to the town isn't supported by a business case that any of the big providers (AT&T most likely in this case) would sign off on; the $1M price tag wouldn't return on investment. Burrington's point that telecommunications generally follows conquest/empire is telling, as the locals are not in direct service of that aim.

She points out that the private/commercial internet will likely never be universally accessible, and that only through local businesses and public co-ops can we ever hope it will.

Area 2:

This piece reminded me of the new New York City freeways championed by Robert Moses in the 1950s. They were not for the people whose neighborhoods they plowed under and divided. There were no on-ramps for the disrupted neighborhoods. The freeways were for middle class white commuters, so they could quickly commute from home to work. It also reminded me of a new freeway through a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem, where it had the same effect. Or the Israeli wall that keeps Palestinians from their fields or the market. Any possible benefit to the locals is likely unintentional. 

The hidden nature of the coastal cable termination installation also reminds me of data centers and U.S. prisons; they are frequently rural, or of a nondescript nature that helps minimize curiosity. Only people in the know will look at them and wonder what benefit they bring to the small towns. Certainly there is little economic benefit to prison towns - nowhere matching the pre-build hype, and data centers provide some jobs, but likely little other benefit to residents. I wonder if Amazon's data centers in Boardman & Hermiston have improved the connectivity of nearby residents. I doubt it. 

When the article asks whether internet connectivity is a utility or a product, and whether it would ever fully ROI, I thought about the current 'debate' around the Postal Service. It's not a business or for profit, it is a public service, which means it costs money to provide. 

Interestingly, just 100 miles down the coast from Point Arena is Point Reyes, which is the historic home to Coast Guard Communications Station NMC (1972-2015) and the commercial radio station KPH (1930-1998). The remote locations have less radio interference and provided unobstructed radio communications throughout the eastern Pacific Ocean.

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