The US's crap infrastructure threatens the cloud

[Commentary] US consumer broadband speeds rank 33rd in the world, right behind the Ukraine.

Personally, I pay more than $1,500 per month for 30/30MB fiber for our office. This is ridiculously expensive and slower than the average household Internet in many other countries. It's a serious impediment to the United States maintaining its economic competitiveness -- and to enabling all of us to take full advantage of the cloud, which is clearly the next phase of computing. As a patriotic American, I find the current political atmosphere where telecom lobbyists set the agenda to be a nightmare. All over the world, high-end fiber is being deployed while powerful monopolies in the United States work to prevent it from coming here. Poor laws and regulations have protected a duopoly in most areas of the country. You can buy Internet from the local cable monopoly or the local phone monopoly, period. Neither have much motivation to make it much faster nor any cheaper. Today, the argument is that municipal fiber -- as well as other efforts to both increase the speed and availability of broadband and make the United States competitive with the rest of the world -- will cost telecommunication jobs. In reality, most evidence points to the opposite net effect. Yes, it would cut into Time Warner's short-term profitability. But it would increase my company's short and long-term profitability -- and create other higher-paying jobs associated with technology and communication throughout the economy.

After the initial cloud rush, where everyone will be talking but only a few will be doing, I expect that cloud adoption will closely match broadband speed, cost, and availability curves. Those companies living in countries where the broadband monopoly is protected will adopt the cloud at a slower rate than those with competitive markets and municipal fiber. There's a good chance US firms will fall into that group.