Not falling behind

[Commentary] Ed Wyatt’s broadband analysis in the New York Times is a mixture of diverse perspectives and peculiar analysis. First, the United States is not falling behind the rest of the world in broadband, and I challenge anyone who thinks otherwise to show their data.

Second, it’s not the case that broadband users in Chattanooga (TN), Lafayette (LA), and Bristol (VA) enjoy the fastest speeds in the United States. I researched Chattanooga and found that the actual, measured speeds experienced in Chattanooga were below the national average. The disconnect stems from the fact that the high-speed network deployed by the public utility only has a few dozen customers for its gigabit network offering. While extremely high-speed networking is available, the vast majority of Chattanooga’s people don’t see any reason to subscribe to it so they use the same options that most people in most of America use: DSL and cable, at speeds that top out at 100 Mbps. Gigabit broadband is available in most US cities of a million people or more, but usually as a commercial product. Hence, if you’re running a business and have a legitimate need for a 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps network connection, it’s quite likely that you can get it at an appropriate price; most home users can’t get one and wouldn’t know what to do with it if they could. Clue: If you’re not connecting hundreds of users to the Internet, you don’t need a gigabit connection.

[Dec 30]