China to Top U.S. in Broadband Subscribers

An anonymous reader writes "China already is rapidly approaching the United States as the country with the largest number of broadband subscribers, according to the El Segundo, Calif.-based firm, and by the end of the year, China is expected to have 34 million subscribers, compared to 39 million in the United States. By the end of 2007, China is expected to have 57 million broadband subscribers, compared to 54 million in the United States, with an even wider lead in the years to follow."

Comments

i would hope so

[hsmith]

considering they have 4x as many people than us in an are that is a bit more densely populated

Re:i would hope so

[Waffle Iron]

and I'll bet the only address they're allowed to connect to with FTP is 127.0.0.1

That's not so bad; it's a kickass site. Lightning fast, too.

Re:i would hope so

[Lord Kano]

That's not so bad; it's a kickass site. Lightning fast, too.

And whoever runs it likes all of the same pr0n that I do.

LK

1.1 Billion vs 280 Million

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a lot easier to have more subscribers/anything when you have almost 4 times the population.

This isn't very interesting news at all.

Next on slashdot: China Tops US in rice consumption.

Re:1.1 Billion vs 280 Million

[SaDan]

Yeah, but they'll NEVER beat us at BUTTER consumption!

Re:1.1 Billion vs 280 Million

[jmv]

Next: China tops US in fuel consumption. That's when it's going to get really scary (I guess it's already scary that 4% of the world population consumes 25% of the energy).

Re:1.1 Billion vs 280 Million

[TheKidWho]

and also produces 25% of all goods.

Makes sense doesn't it now? Turn off your selective memory.

Re:1.1 Billion vs 280 Million

[stupidfoo]

Actually the US produces closer to 29-30% of the world's goods with 25% of the world's "resources". So, we produce goods at a higher efficiency than the rest of the world (on average).

But you're right, that doesn't sound quite as sexy. It's like when people complain about the US's "record" deficits even though it, as a percentage of it's GDP, is no where near record levels and is lower than most of Europe. But again, that's not as sexy.

Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

High speed access to everything the government wants them to see.

So?

[Raul654]

Look at a population map of china. Now look at one of the US. Half of china has a population density of less than 2.5 people per square mile, and the other half has more than 500. Getting a large section of the country wired very quickly is pretty easy. The US population, on the other hand, is spread really thin. So it's not surprising that China could overtake the US quickly.

Re:So?

[anactofgod]

Riiiight.

So, you posit that rural dwellers are self-reliant and accountable for their own actions, while city dwellers want government handouts.

Well, actually, the real data shows that the opposite is true. Let's talk taxes. Consider this study of the 2000 Bush-v-Gore election results, as mapped against states that receive net benefits from federal spending. If you want more recent data, you can map the raw facts yourself against the result of the 2004 Bush-v-Kerry election using this data published by taxfoundation.org.

I'm come from plain talking folk, so let me just say it how it is. How red staters can keep posing about their hardy self-reliance while simultaneously sucking so hard on the public teat provided by the blue staters strikes me as being, at the very least, impolite. I don't mind contributing my fair share of taxes - I view it as an investment in my country for all that it provides to me- and for some of those taxes to go to support the undereducated, indigent or unfortunate, be they rural or urban. I don't even expect the recipients to say "please" or "thank you" when they take the money given to them. But do expect not to have my hand spit when I'm trying to give you the handout.

So, pass this around to your fellow self-reliant, hardy, accountable red staters -- Strut around and pose all you want, but if you can't be polite, give us back our taxes.

Thanks a bunch.

Re:So?

[anactofgod]

Yeah...well, we now have executive and legislative branches dominated by those who ran on a platform to end those subsidies. Even though those in my state and in my tax bracket may get more cash back from the Feds, how much do you want to bet that subsidies to the red states will actually *increase* over the next four years? I'm willing to bet that fiscal irresponsibility will abound in order to keep the red staters fat and sassy.

Instead of giving the money back, I'd appreciate it if the red states would spend some of it on their educational systems. The US going to need a better educated workforce if we're going to stay competitive. That, or keep recruiting the top foreign talent in place of the brains we're not willing to train at home.

Continuing the discussion of the disconnect between red state political ideals and realities. Guess which ten states have the highest bankruptcy rates? Utah, Tennessee, Nevada, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi and Idaho - all red states. Nice, huh? What an incredible demonstration of fiscal responsibility and self reliance! Still, I like that your representatives are willing to put the screws to you with the change in bankrupcy laws they are trying to enact.

Once red staters stop drinking the Kool-Aid and realize that they were never as self-reliant as they think they are, and that the Republican elite DON'T have their best economic interests at heart, they're going to switch. It might kill them to join up with gay-loving baby killers, but they'll do it anyway when they can't feed their families. And they'll be begging for those safety nets that are being slowly stripped away.

Don't worry. We blue staters are an understanding and tolerant lot. Comes with the territory, so to speak. *grynn* You'll be welcome back into the mainstream fold.

But most of the content is unavailable...

[binaryspiral]

So what if more people in China have broadband... most of the content of the Internet is monitored and filtered by the Chinese government.

Score one for the rest of the free world.

Re:Dialup

[red5]

I had to help my sister figure out some computer related things at work this morning. They had AOL dial-up internet. I didn't even know they made that anymore.

Re:Percentages

[Anonymous Coward]

China has 1,298,847,624 and USA has 293,027,571

So China has about 4% and USA has 18%.

Great firewall

[mrogers]

Now they can fail to find information about democracy, Falun Gong, Christianity or encryption software at blazing 2 megabit speeds! Hooray for broadband!

Further Developments

[Capella or Bust]

In other news, reports indicate that the China has far surpassed the US in terms of the number of households that contain "lungs." These "lungs" are being used by the Chinese to breathe "air," and it is widely fear that the Chinese may very well breath more "air" than any other civilized nation on earth, followed closely by India.

Yes, but who'd got MORE access?

[joetheappleguy]

A big chunk of the Internet is denied to people behind the Great Firewall of China.

Good or bad our 54 million broadband subscribers get the WHOLE Internet, even the crazy North Korean bits

Now when is China going to beat that?

Of course...

[carambola5]

Of course for China, that's 2.9% while for the US, it's 13.5%.

Check for yourself: http://www.census.gov/ipc/prod/wp02/tabA-04.pdf

Hooray for manipulating statistics!

Re:Mmmmm....

[mrogers]

Nah, I hear they have a great firewall.

Even Canada is higher..

[Quickfry]

Canada is higher than the US, per capita (which is what counts) I mean hell, our country is made up of lots of ice, mountains, and trees, and even our eskimos have a fat pipe!

Re:Even Canada is higher..

[Quickfry]

Ah. You have obviously heard about Canadians and their 'fat pipes' It's all true.

Dishnet aims for India-wide WiFi coverage in 2 yrs

[anandpur]

Other news by 2007 every Indian can be Subscribers of Broadband

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=tech nologyNews&storyID=8386370

Just another symptom.

[stealth.c]

Within a decade, China's going to be "it." Not the USA. I know it's blasphemy to most Americans to say so, but it's a plain and simple fact.

At least when that happens, maybe we can get our manufacturing jobs back. Maybe we won't have to live in this stagnant consumer culture and it'll be fashionable to NOT be up to your earlobes in debt. Maybe sunshine will burst out of our asses.

I, for one, welcome our new Sino-Overlords.

Re:Just another symptom.

[Pros_n_Cons]

I know its "in" to hate the USA (certainly on this site) but this story shows the desperation of people to show how the "USA is losing it" and this is the best they can come up with? That is testement to just how darned strong the USA still is. While the rest of the world is trying so hard to show up the americans, the US is busy working on the next technology that will leave half of the world in the dust. Cars were suppose to be the end of the US, but little did they know about this TCP/computers thingy being worked on. Now the rest of the world fights over broadband while we're up on mars studying the water we just found. Think about it.

Re:Breed Geeks, breed!

[Vombatus]

Geeks do your partiotic duty.

Go forth and multiply?

Where did I leave my pocket calculator?

Communism at work..

[going_the_2Rpi_way]

Not surprising really, since most 'broadband' sharing type setups are very socialist in nature. I wonder just how 'broad' that band really is.
I mean, I've heard Cuba touted as having the 'best' healthcare system in the world (honestly!)... , but I don't think you'd have easy access to a CAT scan unless your name was Fidel. It might be the most 'even' perhaps in that almost everyone has the same lack of access.
Any bandwidth figures?

Re:Population

[grumpygrodyguy]

that is nice coming from a non US citizen who called us the US of Asshole's in a previous post.

Actually, I _am_ a US citizen living in Atlanta, GA. Born and raised US, white, middle-class, etc. And I meant what I said in that post.

Yeah!

[TheRealStubot]

And that was with ONE Linksys wireless router, strategically placed in Bejing.

Head in the sand

[travellerjohn]

More broadband, more people, booming economy, bigger army.

When the US going to wake up and realise that China is big and powerful and growing?

A quick trip around some of the major Chinese cities and and you can see a booming economy, new cars, lots of construction, retail and manufacturing. The Chinese are catching up quick. And I dont think most Chinese are too worried about censorship so long as they can make money.

Meanwhile the US is mucking about in Iraq, and lecturing other people on how to run their own countries. (Something that doesnt go down too well.)

It is only a matter of time before the Chinese economy catches up with the US, and I dont think they will be too well inclined towards the US. Then perhaps we will be wishing we paid a little more attention and were a little less arrogant.

Broadband is only one of many indicators that the USA's economic dominance might be shortlived.

Not that simple.

[fm6]

1.1 billion people is just so many warm bodies --they mean nothing unless they're part of a vital economy. Fifty years the population ratio was almost as lopsided, but the Chinese couldn't even feed themselves, much less buy fancy technology. At that time, the U.S. dominated the planet in infrastructure, manufacturing base, skilled workforce, advanced, raw economic power, and a lot of other factors. Not led, dominated.

In 1955, most people wouldn't have had any notion what "Broadband Internet Access" was. But if you could make them understand that it was a key technology of the 21st century, and that it would be more available in China than in the U.S....

An American would have reported you to the FBI for spreading commie propaganda. And a Chinese would have shaken his head at your obvious dementia. The U.S. has lost its edge, and this is another sign of it.

Re:What good is broadband if it's censored?

[liangzai]

Broadband is good because virtually nothing is blocked the way you believe it is blocked. I sit here in Shanghai, read my daily /., download all the porn I could ever want, read articles on Tibet, human rights, etc., and it all go through. There's no fucking difference from surfing in the West.

If I one day would come across something that is blocked, I would of course go to virtualbrowser.com or use a proxy from proxy4free.com, both of which are totally unblocked in China (as is 99.9999% of the web, including Slashdot, goatse porn, news and protest sites about Tibet -- I could mail you screen shots if you don't believe me).

People continue to believe in this myth that the Chinese are blocked from surfing the web. There IS blocking of web sites, but it is so limited that it has no effect whatsoever. If a site doesn't work, just google up another similar site or a mirror. Or use a proxy.

There is no way you could effectively block content on such a thing as tah Intarweb... the whole thing seems to be a domestic political farse to make it look like the authorities are doing something to curb the Western influence.

I am pleased with the service from China Telecom. They give me broadband for 80 yuan per month, including a perfectly working Huawei modem. I have no complaints.