The Internet accelerates while U.S. Trails Behind

THE INTERNET ACCELERATES WHILE US TRAILS BEHIND
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 12/14, AUTHOR: Charles Giancarlo, Cisco]
[Commentary] The second wave of the Internet Revolution is upon us, but is America ready? Based on the current growth and availability of household bandwidth speeds and quality, the answer is clearly no. The United States has been a technology leader for the past decade, but recent statistics show that the country is in danger of losing its premier position. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States is no better than middle-of-the-pack regarding the availability of broadband network access. "Broadband" is loosely defined as any high-speed network connection typically faster than 1.5 megabits per second, although the U.S. definition is 200 kilobits per second -- roughly six times slower than universal standards. The United States now ranks 12th in the world in the total percentage of citizens that subscribe to broadband access, lagging behind such countries as Iceland, Korea, Sweden, Belgium and Canada. The trend line is even worse. The United States ranks 17th for the growth of these high-speed connections, outpaced by nearly all of our economic peers. Our broadband speeds don't measure up either. Korea's citizens, for example, have access to 50 megabits per second connections, making Internet services at typical U.S. speeds "broadband lite," at best. Though once considered a luxury, broadband access is quickly becoming basic infrastructure for any country wishing to benefit from the development of modern digital communications and Internet technologies. This is arguably America's most important infrastructure issue for global competitiveness. The time for a national broadband plan is now. We need to set national goals and hold our service providers, regulators and legislators accountable for meeting these goals. A few things that I think will help immediately; 1) The government hurts innovation when yesterday's rules are used for today's technology, including Internet phone service; 2) With regular phone service penetration nearly universal, develop federal policies to make broadband as accessible as telephones; 3) Press firmly ahead with the 2009 digital television transition, while continuing to clear a path for the coming explosion in wireless broadband services and technologies.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/12/14/EDGOULJ5TB1.DTL