Report: U.S. Broadband Is Just Mediocre

[dread_cthulhu]

US Broadband: Needs More Cowbell!

 

[happyballz]

[citation][nom]TheViper[/nom]America has 2 things going against it.1. Low density.2. Old routing and switching hardware in place.The second problem came about because America started the Internet and has had to replace several generations of gear to upgrade speeds.[/citation]
Over 250 million (82%) people live in urban areas in US that is far from being "low" density. This should not be used as an excuse, becuase even in megacities like new york and such where density is huge we still get abismal internet options and speeds. If your comment was true then by definition at least big cities should be full of fiber-to-consumer connections and they are far from it.
Need to upgrade hardware? Thats fine put people to work we need jobs anyways, ISP's and telcos are raking in huge profits plus they get huge incentives from government so this hould not be a problem at all.

[nom]curryj02[/nom]US broadband prices ARE NOT the highest, not even close when you consider that in many other countries (Australia, UK, large parts of Europe) you are charged on a usage model (ie. download caps). To get 'unlimited' internet in these countries would probably be even more expensive than your connections in the US if it was even offered. /end rant[/citation]
Except you forgot to mention that those countries that do have it metered are the ones that have no competition or government regulations forcing them to upgrade and advance their networks as without them a corporation will never spend money on any upgrades since they own most of the market anyways.
Worked in Moscow, Russia for 3 years and it is a perfect example, the city pushes providers and with over 10+(yes that many in most regions) competitiors it was $12 for 100down/50upMbit with no "caps" in a city that is VERY expensive to live in and where labor is expensive as well. But you go to a smaller city in mid Russia with limited competitors and it is $20-$30 for measily 2-3Mbps so that goes to show you what competition does.
Same situation happening here- no competition no insentive nor drive to progress. There is no shortage of bandwidth, just as like there is no shortage of greed from telcos that milk it.

 

[blackened144]

[citation][nom]mcpcna01[/nom]Living in the US, out West my question is how do countries that are this size and have this much low density population and wilderness areas fare on the list? I am not minimizing the fact that we could do better but I would like to see this considered. With the budget issues we are having I want Government money spent elsewhere. Maybe give tax breaks to companies for upgrading, higher amounts for bigger upgrades.[/citation]
Exactly.. By landmass, the largest countries on the planet are Russia, Canada, USA, China, and Brazil. How do the other 4 compare to the US in broadband penetration? My guess is we are WAAAYY ahead of the curve, with Canada being the closest..

 

[MrCaffeineX]

The penetration of broadband internet access in the US market is a complicated task at best. I live in a rural area in upstate New York, a minimum of an hour from any major city. I am fortunate to have cable internet service available, but my neighbors up the road are not so fortunate, because they are just a little too far from the main line. You have to take into consideration that we have STATES the size of some of these COUNTRIES that have a higher penetration of broadband internet access, which seems to rarely, if ever, receive any attention when these types of reports are generated.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the communications companies, the pseudo-monopolistic practices allowed in the market, nor the bottom-line driven motivations of those in charge of said companies. All of these are valid points for criticism, but even if these were not a factor, as is the case in some of the countries in the study where the government has near-absolute control of the communications markets, we would still have many hundreds of thousands of square miles to cover to reach 95% penetration, with very few paying customers to support the infrastructure development.

You may now begin your sophomoric chuckling at the number of times I used the word 'penetration'.

 

[stoogie]

I'm from Tasmania, Australia and I'm still stuck at 164kb/s. Their Internet don't look mediocore to me.

 

[Max Collodi]

[citation][nom]neiroatopelcc[/nom]/me would like to see the original report. Link?[/citation]

The link to the source is at the top of the page, just below the headline.

 

[Brynjaminjones]

I'm in the UK, and I live in the countryside, but only about 3 miles from the exchange. We pay about £28 a month, to get "unlimited" broadband. Our download speeds change all the time - the highest we've ever had was 1.5Mbps, but it seems to average 0.75Mbps. Our upload speed is about 0.30Mbps.
Despite the price we pay for the fastest and unlimited broadband, we still receive these appalling speeds, and if we use over 100GB in a month, we get a letter telling us that they'll restrict our speeds (if it's possible to even make them any slower!) if we go over 100GB again!
I really don't like BT Broadband!

Compared to that, those speeds in the US sound amazing!

 

[jacobdrj]

'Just' mediocre? Its THAT GOOD? I don't believe that for 1 second... Broadband in USA is subpar...

 

[AnUnusedUsername]

I'm surprised at what many of you in the U.S. consider "slow". The fastest connection you can get where I live (in the U.S.) peaks at around 100KB/s (or 0.8Mbit/s) for downloads. The next step up is far beyond affordable at more than $100 a month. If 10Mb/s is mediocre, the parts of the country with less than 1Mb/s connections are far below that.

 

[JD13]

If you follow the definition of what the FCC calls "broadband" : most wouldn't even qualify! We pay about $50.00 a month for 15/2 service (and that's with a discount) because we have their 3 service package of: TV, internet, and telephone. The 2mbps upload is the real is a real pain when trying to play any multiplayer online.

 

[robochump]

US is allot bigger than most of those faster netz speed countries. But our local ISPs better get the s**t together anyhow and give us what we pay for!

 

[robochump]

[citation][nom]TheViper[/nom]America has 2 things going against it.1. Low density.2. Old routing and switching hardware in place.The second problem came about because America started the Internet and has had to replace several generations of gear to upgrade speeds. Countries just getting in on the broadband act in the past 10 years have been able to start with much newer gear enabling higher speeds to begin with.But it's getting better. I have cable (not FIOS or other fiber optic services) and a DOCSIS 3.0 modem and I get at max 31 Mbps. Uploads are still a paltry 3.5 Mbps.[/citation]

Good point. US had internet from the beginning and a lot of the infrastructure is old. The top netz speed countries are most likely late to the game with newer hardware. Also remember upgrading cuts into profits so it may take awhile for the US to catch up.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

25Mbps average down here.

 

[blurr91]

We also don't have high speed rail like other countries. Guess what? Same problem, low population density that makes high speed train impractical makes high speed internet more expensive here.

We have open space. I'd rather live here than anywhere else on the planet. I will not exchange huge open space we have for moderately faster internet connection. Wait for a while and our internet speed will increase. Where as those countries with high internet speed will never get more space.

 

[doorspawn]

When did South Korea become Korea?

Or is it just that if we're talking about advanced technology we imply south, and poor rogue state we imply north.

Also, AFAIAC infrastructure should be govt or state owned, as duplicating it is daft but the corporate alternative is monopoly.

 

[eddieroolz]

Gee, we needed a report to tell us this? I'm no American, but in Canada things are much, much worse than even America...

I hate to think that US & Canada are the only nations in the G8 that have monopolistic telecoms that likes to look backwards instead of innovating and improving service. This kind of attitude wouldn't be tolerated in any other nation...

 

[fir_ser]

I believe the US government has some plans to change this fact and improve the internet so that the US will be one of the leading countries in internet services.