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The U.S. Falling Behind In Broadband?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-like-fallen dept.

prostoalex writes "Michael J. Copps of the FCC has published a column in the Washington Post describing the United States' Internet disconnect as far as broadband: 'The United States is 15th in the world in broadband penetration, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). When the ITU measured a broader digital opportunity index (considering price and other factors) we were 21st — right after Estonia. Asian and European customers get home connections of 25 to 100 megabits per second (fast enough to stream high-definition video). Here, we pay almost twice as much for connections that are one-twentieth the speed.' To be fair in comparison, USA is 2nd in the world as far as number of broadband lines installed."

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. What? No chart? by Pink_Ranger · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not only does the article NOT have a chart, but it doesn't even bother to list who the OTHER 14 countries are?

    Also, I love how they mention ESTONIA with a tone that suggests we are somehow more "backwards" for falling behind them on some list. I'd be offended if I were Estonian.

  2. Re:Government Intervention? by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 5, Informative

    Free market? Maybe you didn't read the article:

    How have we fallen so far behind? Through lack of competition. As the Congressional Research Service puts it, U.S. consumers face a "cable and telephone broadband duopoly." And that's more like a best-case scenario: Many households are hostage to a single broadband provider, and nearly one-tenth have no broadband provider at all. For businesses, it's just as bad. The telecom merger spree has left many office buildings with a single provider -- leading to annual estimated overcharges of $8 billion.

    Doesn't sound like much of a free market to me.

  3. Re:Hey there Chicken Little! by erikdalen · · Score: 3, Informative

    While all of what you say is true and of course a factor. The US is still far behind for example Sweden that only has ~20 people per square km. So other factors obviously play a big role as well.

    --
    Erik Dalén
  4. Dense and COLD places by fortinbras47 · · Score: 3, Informative
    This doesn't explain everything, but it does explain a lot. The list is available here

    Looking at the list, you notice two trends. (1) Cold northern countries are in the top 15... Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Canada etc... (2) Smaller countries with highly dense population centers are in the top 15... Korea, Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Iceland (Iceland which is both cold and small is at the very top)

    That said, we probably could do better with increased compensation because we're so goddamn rich, and compared to other countries on the list, we have such a low penetration of DSL.