Why Broadband In North America Is Not That Slow

An anonymous reader writes "The Globe & Mail has an article written in response to a recent study done by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard about how far behind the rest of the world the US and Canada are with regard to broadband internet. The refutation basically tears apart Harvard's analysis and shows why the US and Canada are actually far ahead of most European countries. 'Canada has a true broadband penetration rate of close to 70 per cent of households. And North Americans use the Internet somewhat more intensively than do Europeans, according to Cisco Systems data on Internet traffic. Further, business Internet traffic in North America appears to be at levels substantially higher than elsewhere in the world. Sadly, there is little systematic effort by international agencies to measure the intensity of Internet usage. Instead, we see comparisons of advertised speeds and "price per advertised megabit," which are especially misleading. Advertised broadband speeds vary from actual speeds. In North America, this is largely a result of "network overhead," and is quite modest. In Europe, however, the variation is often dramatic.'"

Re:This is just a reminder.

[Shin-LaC]

Also, when you have free time in California you can enjoy the sun, hit the beach, surf the ocean, or whatever else it is that young, happy people do outside. But what are you going to do when you're stuck inside during the long, cold Scandinavian winter? Before the Internet, Scandinavian kids used to get so bored, and thus angry, that they would do crazy stuff like this [wikipedia.org]. Now fast Internet access makes life bearable in the inhospitable north. Of course everyone wants it.

Re:Right

[Anonymous Coward]

I once worked for these guys. They are a completely dysfunctional company. Like some sort of corporate jellyfish, they just float through life with nobody really doing anything because the guy responsible for the gas pedal can't see the road, and the guy in charge of the brakes never met the guy who does the gas, and the guy steering just runs over everyone because it is the gas pedal and brake guy's fault anyway.

Re:This is just a reminder.

[jon3k]

"Stuck inside? If something the winters were awesome as a kid. Snowboarding, playing in the snow, cute girls with red cheeks and all the crazy stuff we used to do (and as a little vigilante throw snowballs at cars and run hiding :). Of course, when you got inside you could enjoy a game of Civilization. I would take all of that anytime over surfing or making sand castles on the beach as a kid, as these things I can do now as an adult."

Well you can have your red cheeks I'll take tanned hotties and thong bikinis.