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Comment by res0nat0r | Hacker News Reader

The issue most here are not mentioning is the sad state of affairs of much of the US public infrastructure. I wonder how old the pipes running to your house are and how long ago they should have been upgraded? This is also a possibility if internet becomes a utility.

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Well, it doesn't really matter how old the pipes are as long as they continue working and provide water that meets the EPA/state standards for health. The US public water system is, for all intents and purposes, a miracle that most people do not even think about. They just rely on it.

It's also your duty to replace the pipes leading up to your own house off of the mains in most cases, so I guess take it up with your landlord.

> Well, it doesn't really matter how old the pipes are as long as they continue working and provide water that meets the EPA/state standards for health.

Actually, it does. Water loss due to deteriorating infrastructure is becoming a significant issue as water supplies get strained. The EPA estimates that the average US water system loses 16% of their water during distribution, and about 75% of that can be prevented or recovered by maintaining and upgrading the systems.[1] Here in Texas this is a serious issue because our reservoirs are increasingly strained by population growth.

[1] http://water.epa.gov/type/drink/pws/smallsystems/upload/epa8...

Do you remember the other day when the FCC changed the definition of broadband to 25/3? If they can continue to do that, we would no longer be beholden to the ISPs upgrading out of the goodness of their hearts. They would upgrade whenever their regulating agency told them they had to.

Uh, there's already a lot of network infrastructure that's the equivalent of "old pipes" that should have been upgraded long ago, at least in my area. I can't see why you'd expect this to make it any worse than it already is.

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