Elliot Onn averred: > You pay taxes to fund your > libraries, schools, and government, which has to maintain the backbone > for our continent.
You're apparently under the impression that public agencies fund the bulk of domestic Internet backbone connectivity. That has not been the case since NSFnet was shut down. Today -- and for the past half-decade or more -- most of the backbone connectivity in the U.S. is owned and operated (at least theoretically) for profit by commercial firms. Schools and libraries -- and most local and state governments -- buy their access to the Internet from those commercial operators, just as do most private individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and so on. It is true that taxes charged on telecommunications services are used to subsidize school and library access, but the government provides only that subsidy, not the connectivity itself. Regards, Thom Stark Telephone: 209-966-2700 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.starkrealities.com Postal address: POB 5008 PMB 199, Mariposa, CA 95338-5008 Ship-to address: 5008-A Highway 140, Box 199, Mariposa, CA 95338-9208 PGP public key: http://www.starkrealities.com/thomskey.txt -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
