The term Last Mile has traditionally been used within the world of telecommunication services,

in reference to

the final portion of infrastructure required to connect an individual or household to an information

services node. In practice, that might mean figuring out how to wire up a house for cable

TV or getting internet connectivity to a particular apartment or house or business. It's a relatively

simple thing comparatively to get internet connectivity to a company-owned antenna or other hub. It's

a lot more difficult to then get that connectivity out to every single possible customer in a region,

because of the immense variability in what will be required to reach

all of those people. In some cases, many miles of extra fiber optic cable is necessary to reach

a remote farmhouse, and in others, cables have to be snaked around electrical poles and up and

through old crumbling brick walls to get where they need to be,

so the people inside these buildings can access the information funneled through those cables.

The last mile problem can be so problematic that some communication service entities will give up on dealing with issues on the ground and choose instead

to utilize satellites and antennas perched on tall towers or on the ground and choose instead to utilize satellites and antennas

perched on tall towers or on the sides of skyscrapers to shoot their signals to their customers

wirelessly. And this, despite the extra costs, often associated with this method, and the quite

often, at least, reduced quality of those signals compared to the hardwired

alternatives. In other cases, entire regions will go unserved by local purveyors of electricity

and internet and waste collection, because that last mile, that final bit of distance between

them and the rest of the service providers'

infrastructure is just too difficult or costly to traverse.

The term last mile is also used in the world of transportation, especially in towns

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