U.S. Broadband Access Lags
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Fri 27th Jul 2012 02:57 UTC
Internet & Networking A free, new report from the New America Foundation compares cost, speed, and availabilty of internet connectivity in 22 cities around the world. The report concludes that U.S. consumers face comparatively high, rising connectivity costs, even while the majority have very limited choices -- often only one or two providers. The report argues that U.S. broadband policies need to change, otherwise consumer choice will continue to deteriorate.
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RE: Times change
by tanzam75 on Fri 27th Jul 2012 18:19 UTC in reply to "Times change"
tanzam75
Member since:
2011-05-19

I remember when people angrily pointed out how one could have a month worth of unlimited broadband access for the mere cost of a few hamburgers in the US, while at the same time in my country, you could spend 0.5 of average wage on excessive dialup cost (to a monopoly telecom) your kids generated if you weren't carefull.


Ironically, the poor state of Internet access in the dialup era happens to be one of the reasons that you have good broadband today. It gave your country a goal to surpass, an incentive to invest.

The US had an adequate broadband infrastructure for 2002. It skimped on investment over the next decade, and ended up with an uncompetitive infrastructure for 2012.

Other countries had pathetic broadband in 2002. So they invested a great deal and now have good broadband in 2012.

And it's not just broadband. Leapfrogging happens a lot in tech infrastructure. For example, China had a patchy telephone landline network, but it now has an excellent mobile network.

Edited 2012-07-27 18:24 UTC

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