Hacker News Reader

So then why doesn't New Jersey do this? It is smaller than SK and has comparable population density: 1288 vs 1171 per sq mi. Or how about NYC? Or LA? People keep bringing up USA size or density statistics when talking about government run utilities, but there are plenty of places where they could work given a will to invest in public infrastructure.

View on HN

Because in the US, planning and zoning falls not under the fed, not under the state, but under the city/county level. In Korea, the fed basically said, nope, we're going to approve this everywhere.

Why do you think google fiber is so selective? Because it is a regulatory nightmare for google to get the unbelievable amount of paperwork done for approval. Even for cities that want to work with google, a lot of them still aren't really able to due to the amount of bureaucracy and red tape required to pass planning/zoning committee muster for each county/city/etc.

The state doesn't do it. Public companies do and most of them don't service just one state or city.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com