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ITIF Senior Fellow Claims "America's Broadband Networks Lead the World"

Posted by timothy on from the att-clearly-breaking-the-curve dept.

McGruber writes "In an Op-Ed published in The NY Times, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF.org) Senior Fellow Richard Bennett claims that 'America's broadband networks lead the world by many measures, and they are improving at a more rapid rate than networks in most developed countries.' Mr. Bennett also says, 'the most critical issue facing American broadband has nothing to do with the quality of our networks; it is our relatively low rates of subscribership.'"

15 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. What!? by willthiswork89 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are nations with 50 mbps for pennies on the dollar to our cost in America, not to mention absolutely no throttling or data limits. Wake up Richard Bennett! There are far too many monopolies in Americas internet connections and THATS the problem, no competition means they can do whatever the hell they want!

    1. Re:What!? by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem is that so long as you like vegetables and meat, somebody is going to have to live out there. Are you really saying that we should relegate our food growers to dial-up speeds?

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    2. Re:What!? by jd2112 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      yep, and if you read the details most of these cases are you get this speed only if you live in the center of the nation's largest city. and its not available in the entire city either

      most of the people complaining in the USA about broadband live out in the exuburbs or rural areas and want the gubment to pay for the infrastructure

      The gubetment already paid for the infrastructure. The telcos pocketed the cash for themselves instead.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    3. Re:What!? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The citizens already paid for the infrastructure. The telcos pocketed the cash for themselves instead.

      FTFY.

    4. Re:What!? by Junta · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The whole article seems to be missing the fact that the developing countries are setting the pace these days.

      Which is stated with a degree of surprise, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

      In 'developed' countries, good enough reigns supreme. They may have state of the art infrastructure as defined by standards when the infrastructure was built. Getting tens of mbps to urban areas is 'good enough'. IPv4 is 'good enough'.

      In countries that have no acceptable infrastructure, they have the opportunity to start from the correct place as it is defined now.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    5. Re:What!? by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > most of the people complaining in the USA about broadband live out in the exuburbs or rural areas and want the gubment to pay for the infrastructure

      Sounds like the Rural Electrification Act.

      Are you really prepared to declare that we are no longer civilized enough to make sure that no one is left behind in this country?

      The infastructure you are using right now or even the city you are living in likely is the result of the sort of "gubment" handout you are trying to whine about.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  2. The Point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Mr. Bennett also says that'"the most critical issue facing American broadband has nothing to do with the quality of our networks; it is our relatively low rates of subscribership." .. which would not be a problem if the service was as cheaper and more reliable.

    1. Re: The Point by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hail, time traveler! Welcome to the World of Tomorrow! I will give you a brief introduction on some important changes in society that have occurred since your time:

      • Michael Jackson died a white woman
      • New Coke turned out to be a flop
      • Berlin Wall has fallen

      Believe it or not, a black man is president of the United States now. We have computers so small that they fit in the palm of your hand. The top 14% of Americans own almost 75% of the wealth and have devastated the economy over the past half decade. The average income of a worker has remained about the same since your time, but the average CEO now makes 350 times the average worker. With so much wealth being sequestered among the super rich instead of being shared among the middle class where it would be used to keep the economy going, the US is on the verge of a complete financial collapse.

      Welcome!

      --
      Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    2. Re: The Point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      No, I made the far better choice of getting a job that pays more than minimum wage when I was 15 and still in highschool. I saved my money to pay for college and got a degree, then I married a woman who shared a similar mindset. We still live with a roommate which some people have too much pride for apparently but it has cut our mortgage in half.

      Maybe the reason people can't get name-brand Cheerios (I don't anyway, waste of money) is that they make really poor life choices?

    3. Re: The Point by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, I made the far better choice of getting a job that pays more than minimum wage when I was 15 and still in high school. ... Maybe the reason people can't get name-brand Cheerios (I don't anyway, waste of money) is that they make really poor life choices?

      Sometimes they made bad decisions. Sometimes they weren't making decisions in the same circumstances as you did, like:
      1. It was legal to work at age 15 where you lived. In a lot of places in the US, it's now illegal to work before you're 16.

      2. Someone was looking to hire an employee somewhere near where you lived. That's not common right now.

      3. That someone was willing to employ a teenager.

      4. You could get to your place of work. Maybe you had a public transit system, maybe the job was close enough to walk to, maybe somebody drove you, but somehow you were able to do that.

      5. You didn't have to drop out of high school to do the work, which means about 10-15 hours a week maximum.

      6. You had the parenting, educational opportunities, and equipment needed to have marketable skills, or you got above-market wages for unskilled labor. Frequently, unskilled labor gets minimum wage or close to it.

      7. You could save all the money you earned for college, rather than supporting your family with it. Many teenage workers use their money to help pay the family rent or keep their siblings fed.

      8. You almost definitely went to college when it was far cheaper than it is now. For example, if you worked 15 hours a week at $10 an hour for 3 years (age 15-8), you would earn about $18,000 after taxes. That's about 25% of 4-year tuition at your nearby state university.

      9. You and your wife probably didn't have to deal with: (a) serious illness or accident, either of yourselves or of someone you consider yourself obligated to care for, (b) a layoff of either of you in the recent recession, (c) a serious natural disaster such as a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, or (d) a house fire.

      I'm not saying you didn't do the right things because you clearly did. What I'm saying is that you did as well as you did in part because you made the right decisions, and in part because you were lucky - you had parents, teachers, bosses, siblings, future wife, etc making decisions that gave you the chance to make the right decision.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    4. Re: The Point by Bengie · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The world doesn't OWE you anything. About all minimum wage should allow is for you - only you - to have a place to sleep and enough food to stay alive. If you want to support anyone else (spouse, children, etc) and provide a quality of life above eating, sleeping, and going to work, then get a better job.

      The whole point of society is what's good for the goose is good for the gander. The irony is that higher paying jobs are typically easier, in the sense that one should be doing what they're good at and getting paid a premium for those services. To tell someone to get a "better job" is like telling someone "you should stop being sick".

      Why do you think we have all of these social programs like public education, infrastructure, welfare, firemen, police, judges, military? Because they benefit us all.


      Implementation details of social programs make a huge difference on their usefulness.

  3. U S A! U S A! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We're number 1! We're number 1!

    I suppose Mr. Bennett just disregards the 32 countries that have recently developed faster more modern networks (http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/). Make up some random metric, don't compare to all nations, disregard contradicting evidence, declare champion. Sounds like a good plan to me!

  4. Many measures but.. by cjjjer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The cost per MB maybe...

  5. low rate of subscibership? by WillgasM · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I, too, find it very difficult to sell inferior products at a huge mark-up.
    It sounds like all our country's Internet woes could be easily solved if ISPs just spent more money on marketing.

  6. What the US really leads the world in by JustNiz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yet another article proving that the only things the US really leads the world in is massively overrating their own country while maintaining total blind ignorance of anything outside it.