It’s Almost 2010 And Broadband In the US Remains A Joke
- 2
- Add a Comment
How long must people in rural areas wait for broadband? Honestly, it is anyone’s guess at this time. We remain a laughing stock in comparison to other industrialized nations in this area. And while it is true that we have more land mass than some of those nations, it does not change the fact that, overall, most people in the US have very poor connections even if they do have broadband.
But here is where it becomes truly sad: we are lagging in broadband quality with countries like Iceland and Lithuania. Seriously? This is unbelievable! While I am not a big fan of “let’s give it all away” in place of a business model, I do think it is about time that the choice to participate in this spending becomes available to more individuals.
Maybe the government should just nationalize it? I don’t fully believe this is the answer either. Rather, I would love to see some huge incentives for existing ISPs to get off their butts and provide WiMAX type solutions in areas where laying down fiber is just too costly. But that is but a dream I suppose. Thankfully for me, I actually chose to move into a housing development that was laying down FiOS as my house was built. Lucky me, I guess.
- Korea Thrunet Records the Fastest International Connection Speeds Among All Korean Broadband ISPs. (Korea).(Brief Article): An article from: Asia Pacific Telecom
- The need for speed: confused about high-speed connection? Want to know which ISP suits your business needs best? Vikki Bland offers this guide to broadband … An article from: NZ Business
2 Comments
Dave
October 2nd, 2009
at 9:51am
It’s a bit of a joke here in the UK as well! As far as I can see, most of the problem is due to the out-dated copper (or in some cases, aluminium) wires which were never anticipated to carry anything more exotic than speech. I have posted this elsewhere but the area where I live, which is just outside Maidstone, the county town of Kent, in the UK, has some sort of covenant forbidding things like external TV aerials (”antennas” to you kind folk across the pond!) and any other work, like digging the estate up to provide cable, which was suggested a few years ago. Goodness knows why it can’t be done, as the estate is nothing special and not historic as it was built in the 80’s. As it is, the best I can ever expect here (unless I go completely wireless) is about half a meg.
Randy Knauf
October 2nd, 2009
at 9:58am
Matt, I can understand your ideal, but reality is the driving force. Much of the areas without broadband coverage have spotty cell service as well. If we can’t even get a cell phone to work in these areas how would you suggest we get broadband coverage. Infrustructure costs money and who is going to pay to go the last mile? We can’t pay our bills as it is how are we going to pay for the extra coverage?
In a perfect world we would all have broadband, but unfortunately we live in an un-perfect world. One in which you have to pay your bills even if the government doesn’t.