2008 International Broadband Rankings

itif writes to let us know about a major new report, released yesterday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, showing how the US and other countries compare in terms of broadband access, speed, and price. The rankings (PDF) place the US 15th, this country having fallen every year since 2001. Here's the full report (PDF). According to the report's executive summary: "The US broadband policy environment is characterized on the one hand by market fundamentalists who see little or no role for government, and see government as the problem; and on the other by digital populists who favor a vastly expanded role for government (including government ownership of networks and strict and comprehensive regulation, including mandatory unbundling of incumbent networks and strict net neutrality regulations) and who see big corporations providing broadband as a problem. Given the policy advocacy and advice they are getting, it is no wonder that Congress and the Administration have done so little."

Comments

Re:Government provided broadband?

[kaynaan]

Yeah, they're "fixing our government"? Is that what you call killing 3000 innocent civilians in one day? . the problem with you Yankees are beleive this BS ... 3000 in a day is nothing compared to what your governments brings to bear on other nations .. Japan, Indonesia, Somalia .. how about US sponsored genocide in Palestine .. Hamas is a democratically elected government of its people you fucktard you cheer lead democracry just as long as you agree with the results. american soldeirs are directly responsible for more than 600, 000 iraqi deaths and over the last 5 years and you keep whining about 3000 who died more than 7 years ago. they were innocent i get it ... but so are they ones you guys are killing ... forgive me i did not get the memo that American lives are more valuable

Re:Yeah.... AND??

[EdIII]

- The price per Mbps in the US is $2,83. How do you justify your claims when you look at Sweden, which is down at a low $0,35 per Mbps, yet is the size of Florida and only 9 million citizens? Florida has more than twice as many citizens and not even close to Sweden.

You said it yourself. Florida has twice as many citizens. That is twice the bandwidth required. That means the "pipes" have to be twice as big to deliver the same level of service as Sweden. Which stands to reason that maybe the cost will already be twice the cost of Sweden? You also assume that the costs of the bandwidth are entirely limited to Florida. What about the fiber linking Florida to the rest of the US?

Sorry, but a smaller country like Sweden is just cheaper to deploy.
 
 

I think your nationalistic thoughts got in the way of all reasoning here.

Not at ALL. That is what I am arguing against in fact. It seems to be nationalistic fervor that is getting people angry they do not have the same bandwidth capabilities as a Swedish, or South Korean, Japanese, etc. citizen. I am simply pointing out that you cannot do a direct comparison. If you were to truly analyze all the costs involved, put everything on a spreadsheet so to speak, then a country like Sweden has an ADVANTAGE over the US in deploying broadband.

When somebody has an advantage over another person it is then not surprising that they statistically "win" more often. Come to Vegas some time and i'll show you how the casinos get built with this very same concept :)