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What's Holding Up Broadband in the U.S.?
ProfBooty writes "A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post discloses that the broadband could potentially aid in the economy's recovery (and that Canadians are 2x as likely to have it, South Koreans 4x), but it's not regulation that is the hold up, it's *surprise* content holders' fears of 'piracy' as well as unwillingness to adapt to new markets. Also discusses the governments of Canada and South Korea and how they were involved in bringing broadband to the people. In additon discusses how in the past, Congress would pass laws as to protect innovators as well as the old guard." The article's by Lawrence Lessig.
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What's Holding Up Broadband in the U.S.?
I don't know...
[he says as downloading a Darwin ISO at ~250K/second]
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You see, the argument that the content providers are preventing the rollout of broadband does not carry any weight. If it did, then why do we have Cities within the US who have an abundance of broadband options?
I speculate that the real holdup is that the infrastructure has to be laid out and that takes a big chunk of money UP FRONT. We were lucky in Cincinnati, that Time Warner and Cincinnati Bell chose to take that plunge and lay the infrastructure.
When you think about it, it is a very risky undertaking to provide broadband. You have to pony up alot of money without any guarantee that people will actually sign up for what some non-geek types refer to as a luxury item.
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Broadband is a tool to further our national identity.
So that'll make you a bunch of funny talking hosers with fast internet, ay?
Canada? Population density? Er...
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I'd rather pay my $40/month for dsl, then live in some socialist cesspool like Canada
True, but I still don't see a great flood of content being the killer app. Something that trades that content (like Napster used to be) maybe... but in my opinion that's not enough to really promote broadband.
Remember, porn is one of the great drivers of technology. It was one of the things that boosted the VCR in the early days, not to mention its still one of the only profitable things on the internet today. If there's a way to make a buck/spur interest in a technology the porn guys will do it. But it hasn't done much to spur on broadband. If porn can't jumpstart broadband (and there's no shortage of that kind of content floating around) then I doubt anything Disney has to offer will either.
I still think its more of an issue of cost. For the average Joe (i.e. someone who isn't apt-get'ing tonnes of MB a night) $40 a month just for the broadband service is a lot of cash. Then factor in the price of content (even if they set it fairly low) and you're talking about a lot of money. At this point I think folks would rather spend that money on cable or satalite TV service.
What needs to happen (IMHO) is the price of broadband will have to come down quite a bit, or something new and innovative that harnesess the unique aspects of broadband IP for broadband to really, really take off.
The Indians and Inuit are unfortunately left to rot and wither in their own corner* (except in Québec, where their culture and language is not only actively protected by the government, but they benefit from huge paybacks from hydroelectric power generated from their territory), and finally, the french who, at least have their own distinctive popular culture, not very compatible with the Yankee pap. Not only that, but they've been resisting for almost a quarter of a millenium all attempts the english made to turn them into english.
So, with that, how can you talk of "canadian national identity"????
* A pundit summarized canada thusly:
- Keeping the yankees out
- Keeping the french in
- Hoping that the indians will quietly vanish