2008 International Broadband Rankings 198
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."
Lack of competition is the biggest reason (Score:5, Interesting)
In this case, he is Chairman Brian Roberts. In other words, because there is almost none to zero competitors in most of the markets Comcast serves, they can get away with continually raising prices. That is why the U.S. continues to lag the world in broadband.
Yes, there is the whole issue of running fiber and cable long distances in the U.S. compared to other countries like South Korea and Japan, but when you look at places such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc, you see the same pattern. Only one, or if you're lucky maybe two, providers from which to choose your broadband service.
In my area, we have two choices; Comcast or Verizon. I can pay $100/month for Comcast's triple-play or I can pay $100/month for Verizon's triple-play. But I can't pay $33/month for just the broadband access or $33/month for just the cable subscription (I currently pay $53.31/month for the combined Basic and Standard cable service).
This is the overwhelming reason broadband penetration in the U.S. continues, and will continue, to lag behind the rest of the world. The only solution is, unfortunately, government interference. Force the providers to offer their lines to others based on the logic that it was taxpayers who helped to subsidize the laying of all the cable and fiber through tax breaks and such. Either the companies open their lines and allow competition or they have to pay back all the subsidies they got when they originally promised to bring broadband to the U.S. Ten years ago.
Re:Government provided broadband? (Score:4, Interesting)
Funny, we kill people "accidentally" left and right. Are we "fixing the government" of Iraq?
The USA is the world's largest consumer of Cocaine, but we are continually fucking with cocaine-producing nations. We are the largest consumer of Afghani heroin, but we paid the Taliban to combat Opium production, no joke. The Bush family has been doing business with the Bin Laden [www.cbc.ca] family for many years (and long before that, they did business with Hitler [guardian.co.uk]) Note that I have included links only from reputable publications. Note also that if you search for documents related to these particular scandals, you have a very hard time finding documents in the US news. That's because 10 megacorporations control 95% of the media in the USA, and they're all owned or controlled by rich people getting richer on the status quo.
We're well past that point today. We've currently got a president who the people never elected. He wouldn't have even had the electoral college in the last election (he already didn't have the majority vote) if all votes had been counted. And the electoral college is unnecessary and inherently undemocratic. Only four times has it overridden the will of the American people, and in at the very least the last occasion it was both unwarranted and, simply, the wrong decision. We ended up with an AWOL DUI puppet instead of a genuine war hero without whom we might not have the internet today. The massive attempts to make Gore look like a whiny bitch worked and distracted all the sheeple away from the reality of what was occurring.
I'm not claiming that the Republicans are the problem. The populists are the problem, and unfortunately, that's most of our representatives - and most of our population.
Re:Lack of competition is the biggest reason (Score:2, Interesting)
You overlook the fact that the major wireless carriers are also (most of) the major wired broadband providers. Sure Verison wireless could enter areas currently wired by Comcast, Wow or other, but what makes you think they would actually complete?
Being right inside the boundry between 2 cities, I have a choice of 3 wired providers: AT&T, Comcast and Wow - and all 3 know this. While I used get letters from the other 2 to switch for the low introductory rate of $xx for 3 months (or maybe 6), each of the 3's rates are within a few dollars of each other (same with the intro rates), so where is the competion? I am still paying $60/month, same as when only Wow was available. (and they no longer offer the switch over rates to me because I have already switched 5 times)
Re:Lack of competition is the biggest reason (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the game-changing aspects of wireless is that it crosses roads. Often you'll find the large telcos have a monopoly on digging cables under roads (or crossing them from above) which has acted to inhibit competition in many places in the past.