Sleepycatz

Red, White, and Tubes

This week the Communications Workers of America released its report on broadband speeds across America. It’s a sobering document which should serve as an indictment of the entire American telecommunications model. However because their methodology relied upon users running their own speed test, the defenders of the status quo will claim the findings are unreliable. If anything the findings in the report paint a significantly brighter picture then what’s actually occurring.

For nine months the CWA collected bandwidth statistics at speedmatters.org. The results were broken down geographically, first by country:

Then by state:

CWA’s statistics are actually skewed in favor of higher connectivity rates then most people have. Approximately 30% of all Internet subscribers in the US continue to use dialup which is not recorded by this survey. Additionally, the survey relies upon a sophisticated user to participate — this alone skews the sample to broadband adopters.

Overall, the US continues to remain outside of the top 10 industrialized nations in broadband penetration. This statistic is further degraded by the FCC’s definition of broadband service as data transfer services exceeding 200 Kb/s in a single direction — significantly less then the 10 Mb/s - 20 Mb/s symmetrical connectivity becoming the standard throughout Europe and Asia. Furthermore, Americans pay more for their Internet then those in other wired countries: American’s pay about a dollar per 92.4 Kb/s where that some dollar in Europe and Asia averages 1.97 Mb/s - this does not take into account the additional voice and television services provided by the European model.

So why does any of this matter? It is no coincidence that America has dropped in global technology innovation to number two, behind Denmark. Denmark is currently ranked, by the ITU, among the top three countries in broadband adoption. Future and even current economies will depend upon high speed Internet access for growth and innovation. The current US model relies upon major carriers seeking high profit for minor deployments. There is presently no national plan to create a broadband infrastructure; in fact, states which have pursued such plans have been sued and heavily lobbied by large carriers to abandon their ideas.

High speed Internet access has the potential to revolutionize our economy — creating new media and advertising markets and competition. It has the potential tore-invent our entire entertainment industry and change the way in which companies and employees relate to one another. It is, in essence, akin to the industrial revolution in scope and force. Whether or not America chooses to participate in the revolution from the outset, or be left behind, is really a matter of governmental policy and not one of ‘market regulation’ (as corporate supporters would argue). High speed Internet infrastructure needs to be understood as similar to the national highway system. A system which facilitates transportation and commerce. It cannot, and should not, be viewed as a private toll road which benefits the few at the expense of national growth and innovation.

This entry was posted by steve on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.