The Digital Cliff

[altivo]

That's a term used to describe the abrupt decay to unusable of a digital signal at a certain distance from the transmitter. The point at which this occurs depends on the height of the transmitting and receiving antennas, the terrain between them, the frequency of the signal, and various other factors. I got around this evening to looking at

Comments

[altivo]

I think Europeans often fail to appreciate the greater distances between dense population centers in North America. Combine that with the fact that services such as DSL or cable television require an investment in infrastructure that is proportional to the distance to be covered, and you will easily see why profit-based corporations decline to provide those services to the rural zones between cities. Where in many European nations the government can and does intervene to make sure that everyone gets equal access to such services, in the US it depends entirely on the good will of the corporations. If they choose to write off rural residents as "irrelevant" or "insignificant" that's the end of it.

Satellite television requires a line of sight to the satellite. Our house is in a shallow valley between two ridges, and surrounded by a grove of 100 year old oak trees. There is no line of sight even from the rooftop. A dish would have to be located on a 100 foot tower adjacent to the house, or at the roadside on a shorter mast but 250 feet from the house. Satellite service is also pretty costly. We don't watch anywhere near enough television to justify the cost. That's why we don't do it for internet either. You have to buy a basic television package before they will sell you internet access on top of it. Much too expensive. Even terrestrial analog television was marginal here. The nearest stations are 30-40 miles away, and most are 60 or more miles distant.