FCC Commish - US Playing 'Russian Roulette' with Broadband

LarryBoy writes "In a speech given at the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps lambasted US broadband policy, saying that the US is 'playing "Russian roulette with broadband and Internet and more traditional media."' Copps also took issue with an op-ed piece ('Broadband Baloney') by fellow commissioner Robert McDowell last week. 'In his speech, Copps didn't mention McDowell by name, but he did claim that broadband in the US is "so poor that every citizen in the country ought to be outraged." Back when then OECD said that we were number four in the world, he said, no one objected to its methodology. Copps also had fighting words for those who blame the US broadband problems on our less-dense population; Canada, Norway, and Sweden are ranked above us, but all are less dense than the US. Besides, this argument implies that broadband is absolutely super within American urban areas. Copps noted, though, that his own broadband connection in Washington, DC was "nothing compared to Seoul."'"

Density?

[Skjellifetti]

Canada, Norway, and Sweden are ranked above us, but all are less dense than the US.

I agree that their aren't many folks as dense as us at the moment, but which are more dense? Norwegians or Swedes?

Re:Meh

[Jimithing DMB]

I fully agree with this. I'm getting 15/1 or something ridiculous like that here in Hampton Roads, VA from Cox. Not to mention that Cox has introduced something they call "PowerBoost" whereby when extra bandwidth is not being utilized you get a huge jump in downstream rate for a few seconds. So basically if I download the latest Leopard dmg from Apple or a new Fedora ISO or whatever it will get these little boosts where I'm downloading damn near 1 megabyte/second for a little while and then it drops back off to the more usual 500-600 kilobytes/second. Man, I feel *so* oppressed.

They actually improved the speeds about a year ago for no additional charge, just part of their infrastructure upgrades. Now, let me think, do I want to stick with Cox where the service keeps improving and I get like zero outages or do I want to have some government-run bureaucracy forcibly providing me internet service?

And even better is this guy's absolute drivel that big companies like Time Warner and Verizon are going to take away our freedoms so we ought to just trust the government to run our internet for us to make sure democracy has a chance.

This dude is clearly a whiner along with all of the other whiners over at Kos. They don't feel they're getting their fair share so it's all about making everything government run and stealing money from your neighbors to pay for your health insurance and your internet service and your everything else in some grand communist plan. To hell with that.

Now, of course, if some rural community wants to band together to provide internet service, or if a state not being served well in general would like to do it then I have no problem with that. A co-op isn't necessarily a bad idea and in fact is the epitome of people taking care of themselves and their neighbors. But this leftist's bunk about needing to foster competition and needing to evaluate what other countries are doing is just crap. It is thinly veiled attempt at giving more power to the federal government which already very clearly has way more power than it can handle.

Re:Quit Capping the Upstream

[jez9999]

The internet is a hell of a lot more than just a series of websites

Absolutely. It's a series of tubes!

Re:Density? - Bullshit

[Infensus]

Bullshit. I've never talked to a Norwegian guy who had much against swedes, nor vice versa (there are of course exceptions to every rule, but I've never actually talked to one myself). We joke about the other country's stupidity all the time, but if you thought those jokes were rooted in real hate or anything like it, you really need to reconsider. Norwegians and Swedes are a relatively homogenous group and culture. All vikings, you know. ;)

(Just kidding. Actually, ALL swedes are dumb as hell, their ugly princesses believe in funny angles and the men cant pee further than a meter. Really. I hate those guys.)

Pay for it yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want to pay for your broadband through my taxes. I don't care how low the US is ranked. If you want it, pay for it yourself.