Is U.S. stuck in Internet's slow lane?

Is U.S. stuck in Internet's slow lane?

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Tue Oct 30, 6:34 PM ET

NEW YORK - The United States is starting to look like a slowpoke on the Internet. Examples abound of countries that have faster and cheaper broadband connections, and more of their population connected to them.

What's less clear is how badly the country that gave birth to the Internet is doing, and whether the government needs to step in and do something about it.

The United States doesn't look set to catch up to South Korea or even Canada (with 65 percent of households connected to broadband, according to Point-Topic) by then, because broadband adoption is slowing down after an initial growth spurt.

The inventory wouldn't cover other countries, but a cursory look shows the U.S. lagging behind at least some of them. In South Korea, for instance, the average apartment can get an Internet connection that's 15 times faster than a typical U.S. connection. In Paris, a "triple play" of TV, phone and broadband service costs less than half of what it does in the U.S.

In the last few weeks, the U.S.'s three largest Internet service providers reported adding 1.2 million subscribers in the third quarter, down from 1.54 million in the same quarter last year, according to a tally by UBS analyst John Hodulik.

But the U.S. does have a few aces up its sleeve. Apart from satellite broadband it has widespread cable networks, which provide an alternative to DSL. Cable has some technical advantages over phone lines, and a new cable modem technology called Docsis 3.0 could allow U.S. Internet speeds to leapfrog those in countries dominated by DSL in a few years.

On the phone side, the country's second largest telecommunications company, Verizon Communications Inc., is spending $23 billion to connect homes directly with super-fast fiber optics.

"Twenty percent of the U.S. is getting a decent network," Burstein acknowledges. The new network can match or outdo the 100 megabits per second Internet service widely available in Japan and Korea, but Verizon isn't yet selling service at that speed.

 

Had Cox Hi-speed too, worked great cause I was in a "Lo-tech' mentality" 55+ manufacturing home park! ha ha Had it all almost to myself. Moved to an more 'upscale park' with their own cable---no Hi-speed, so had to opt for dedicated-line DSL. Problem is, my space is too far out to get the Higher-speed (+$10 more/mo) DSL, just have regular!! <sigh> Still seems to run about the same as the neighborhood cable!!

 

Same article said something about "Bush and the administration have kept hands off to let the industry solve it's problem" <my paraphrase>

I agree...