Where is fast cheap broadband? Not in the U.S.
According to Free Press, the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, “the United States continues to lag behind the rest of the world in accessible and affordable broadband service, with no signs of closing the digital divide at home.”
The current dysfunctional policies promulgated by the FCC have left Americans with “higher prices, slower speeds and no meaningful competition for high-speed Internet service.”
S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press and author of the report entitled Broadband Reality Check II states: “[T]he FCC seems content to ignore the problem, manipulate the data, and pretend we’re moving forward.”
Among the report’s key findings:
- The United States is 16th in the world in broadband penetration, and 14 other OECD nations saw higher overall net growth in broadband adoption than the United States from 2001 to 2005.
- Consumers in other countries enjoy broadband connections that are far faster and cheaper than what is available here. U.S. consumers pay nearly twice as much as the Japanese for connections that are 20 times as slow.
- The most important factors explaining the digital divide among nations are household income and poverty — not population density.
- U.S. broadband prices aren’t dropping: Cable modem prices are holding constant or rising, and DSL customers on average are getting less bandwidth per dollar than just a year ago.
- Lack of broadband competition continues
- FCC disappointment on broadband
- If you want a fast and cheap Internet connection, you can have it, but not in the U.S.
- New legislation will reduce access to competitive Internet content and services.
- Internet for everyone? Why not?
Category: Communication, Corruption, Politics
Remember the Information superhighway? All that fiberoptic cable buried by the phone companies with tons of federal tax subsidies?
Apparently the phone companies have no intention of using that, since doing so will take away the excuse for their profiteering.
Hey people… WAKE UP!!!. This is the is the true benefit of privatization. Less service and higher prices to maximize the company profits.
Oh yes absolutely, you are completely right.
I do thing that cheap broadband is the future and if there is a convenient way of you to compare these packages it’d be even best http://broadbandinspector.com