Friday, October 31st, 2014
Stephan: The U.S. invented the internet, then sold it to monopolies in each city or region, and they did what monopolies always do: gave the lowest quality service for the highest achievable price. This was brought home to me several years ago when I when to Seoul and saw teenage girls downloading entire movies faster than I could get my online connection to download a complicated website. Right now I have the fastest internet I have ever had or that one can get in my part of the country. I just tested it, it was 17.95 Mbps. Excellent by American standards, particularly given that I live in a very rural area; yet that is pathetic in other developed nations. Run a test on your own speed after your read this report. What do you pay?
The Internet linkages and traffic graphically displayed
America’s slow and expensive Internet is more than just an annoyance for people trying to watch “Happy Gilmore” on Netflix. Largely a consequence of monopoly providers, the sluggish service could have long-term economic consequences for American competitiveness.
Downloading a high-definition movie takes about seven seconds in Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Zurich, Bucharest and Paris, and people pay as little as $30 a month for that connection. In Los Angeles, New York and Washington, downloading the same movie takes 1.4 minutes for people with the fastest Internet available, and they pay $300 a month for the privilege, according to The Cost of Connectivity, a report published Thursday by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute.
The report
compares Internet access in big American cities with access in Europe and Asia. Some surprising smaller American cities — Chattanooga, Tenn.; Kansas City (in both Kansas and Missouri); Lafayette, La.; and Bristol, Va. — tied for speed with the […]
Greetings from Zagreb, Croatia. Internet is flying here
I’m checking out Next Century Cities, next-generation broadband now in 32 US cities & growing.