If you are interested in taking away control of digital communication from the isp's...

As, like me, you are interested in both preserving the postal service and taking long range digital communications away from the isp's, I wanted to share something. Obviously, it's just an idea at this point and ideas are a dime a dozen. But, as mesh networks have limitations, I wanted to make people aware of an alternative option.

As briefly as possible, you might have heard of or been involved in projects like Meshnet and Outernet that mean to take away control of the citizen's digital communications from private isp's who charge outrages prices for internet access?

One way of doing that is have the national postal services of multiple countries provide an albeit primitive --but global --- form of internet to compete with the isp's.

Since, in the U.S. and many other nations, the postal service already makes daily rounds of every mailbox, why not provide postal trucks and personnel with devices that automatically receive digital files from wireless usb sticks securely attached to mailboxes?

Every day the postal service could automatically pick up the data residents send to their mailbox usb stick and transmit it to either the larger internet for the customer or to the Outernet, as suggested by this post on the Outernet forums made about a partnership between the two:

https://discuss.outernet.is/t/an-idea-for-two-way-communication-a-little-long-but-hear-me-out/2173

Outernet has successfully implemented one-way communication and now needs a way to make it two-way. But there are costs, legalities and bandwidth issues with providing every private residence with a transmitter to send data directly up to the Outernet satellites. Allowing the postal service to handle the "return" transmissions of private residences could be the needed piece of the puzzle to create a viable challenge to the isp's.

While it wouldn't be a "real time" internet that allowed people to send instant text messages, it would be what many people are looking for--- a way to cut their ties with the isp's but not their access to global communication. But other than there being no "real time" communication, there are no other limitations. You don't need to be in a highly populated area with available "nodes' to connect, as with a mesh network. As long as you receive mail, you can send your data. And there is no danger of data bottlenecks, also with a mesh network.

Of course, if you don't like the idea of your communications being in the hands of government either--- which I think is a far less odious option than private companies who want more and more of your money--- you could posit ideas for a citizenry driven data pickup brigade.

However, I personally think some kind of partnership between the postal service and Outernet would be ideal.