Free American Broadband!

S. Derek Turner, a research fellow at Free Press has published in Salon a stunningly complete overview of the current state of broadband and wireless in the US.

Mr. Turner highlights how a number of cities and countries around the world provide broadband service that is both many times faster and cheaper than anything available in the US.

“Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that’s 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month. Across the globe, it’s the same story. In France, DSL service that is 10 times faster than the typical United States connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are common for less than $30 per month.”

In effect, the USA has become a 2nd World Country when it comes to Internet access. We are playing catch-up to the rest of the advanced world, and are falling further and further behind in an area where we once led.

Much of the problem lies in telecom competition, or lack thereof.

“Today, major cable companies and DSL providers control almost 98 percent of the residential and small-business broadband market. This trend is the direct result of FCC policies that fail to encourage real competition among broadband providers, giving free rein over the market to the cable and DSL giants. The corporate giants are also vigorously fighting to stop cities and towns from building “Community Internet” systems—affordable, high-speed broadband services funded in part by community groups and municipalities—even in places where the cable and DSL companies themselves don’t offer service. Yet, like rural electrification projects in the early 20th century, today’s Community Internet projects offer the best hope of achieving universal broadband service.”

“In the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Congress directed the FCC to oversee the timely deployment of Internet services that “enable users to originate and receive high quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications.” Currently, this requirement translates into an Internet connection with typical download and upload speeds between 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps (megabits, or million bits, per second).

“But the FCC defines a “high-speed” connection as one capable of transmitting data at a rate of 200 kbps (kilobits, or a thousand bits, per second) in one direction — about four times the speed of dial-up. At this slow speed, it is barely possible to receive low-quality streaming video, and is completely impractical to originate high-quality video.”

If free trade and competition are supposed to maximize value for consumers and provide fair prices for goods, why are American’s getting the short end of the stick? Where the FCC and Bush’s White House are declaring success through free markets, why are Americans paying more and more per megabyte then in Europe, Asia, and Canada?

There’s a further problem as well: availability of broadband doesn’t equal adoption and uptake. Here in NYC, much of the city has both DSL and cable-modem service. Yet most residents don’t make use of broadband due to the unreasonably high prices and poor service that the telco/cable duopoly maintains.

Overall, we are developing a greater digital divide. This bigger divide isn’t between the rich and poor in this country, but rather a digital divide between the US and the rest of the advanced world.

Mr. Turner’s article is as complete a statement as can be made about how our government and our “markets” are letting us down. Read it and pass it along.

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