Dollar General's 19,000 Stores Could Solve Rural America's Internet Problem
7 comments
> Visual: U.S. map overlaying DG store density and proposed Gold Site distribution.
Nothing says LLM “generate me a white paper” more than text description of visuals that do not exist.
Nothing says LLM “generate me a white paper” more than text description of visuals that do not exist.
https://broadbandusa.ntia.gov/funding-programs/broadband-equ...
https://www.ntia.gov/funding-programs/internet-all/broadband...
Rural America voted against policy that was building out infra for them. Perhaps they will change their mind eventually. This is a people and policy problem, not a technology problem.
(less AI slop please)
https://www.ntia.gov/funding-programs/internet-all/broadband...
Rural America voted against policy that was building out infra for them. Perhaps they will change their mind eventually. This is a people and policy problem, not a technology problem.
(less AI slop please)
Will "Rural America" do anything with a faster internet connection, other than stream Fox News in HD, and subscribe to more Facebook hate groups?
It's a good idea. Many DG stores are within line of sight with one another, just need to add a short tower with some microwave dishes.
Rural America's internet problem is not edge compute. It's the FCC constantly redefining "broadband" to include barely-connected households.
This solves nothing, even if you bridge the digital divide. It's also subject to local regulation, likely unprofitable and requires extraordinary headcount-to-compute ratios that will never displace Oracle or AWS. Their "pre-built logistics and power grid" would get saturated by 2 colo machines.
This solves nothing, even if you bridge the digital divide. It's also subject to local regulation, likely unprofitable and requires extraordinary headcount-to-compute ratios that will never displace Oracle or AWS. Their "pre-built logistics and power grid" would get saturated by 2 colo machines.
As someone living in rural Nevada and served by Dollar General and Family Dollar stores, I agree. I don't see what problems out here would be solved by local cloud computing resources. The snippet provided doesn't go into detail.
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## 1. Executive Summary
The DG Edge Fabric proposes transforming selected Dollar General (DG) retail locations into secure, distributed edge computing nodes. By leveraging existing real estate and infrastructure, this model enables a scalable, low-latency compute network spanning rural and underserved regions across the United States. Each node integrates a sealed micro-data-center rack within a secure cage, delivering localized processing power for IoT, AI inference, and CDN caching. This approach reduces bandwidth dependency, minimizes latency, and opens new revenue opportunities for DG and partners.
*Visual:* U.S. map overlaying DG store density and proposed Gold Site distribution.
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## 2. Context and Problem
Traditional cloud infrastructure concentrates compute capacity in urban data centers, leaving rural regions underserved. The result is high latency, limited bandwidth, and exclusion from AI-driven economic growth. Building new rural data centers is capital-intensive and slow. However, Dollar General's footprint—over 19,000 stores—represents an unmatched, pre-built logistics and power grid across the country.
The challenge: how to convert selective DG locations into reliable micro-edge data hubs capable of delivering enterprise-grade uptime, environmental stability, and security at low operational cost.
*Visual:* Comparative maps—U.S. data centers vs. DG store distribution; optional “Before & After” visual highlighting the rural digital divide.
so much more but limited to 4000 characters