BROADBAND INTERNET IN THE USA: WE LAG BEHIND

What is broadband internet access? And why are we so far behind the Europeans. Didn't we invented the thing?

According to Wikipedia, broadband is a high rate of internet data access, generally described in terms which indicate the data (or 'bits') delivered or sent per second. A kilobit (kb) is defined as 1000 bits, while a delivery speed of 1kbit/s is a rate of 1000 bits per second, while a megabit/sec (Mbit/s) is a rate one million bits per second.

For example, a typical telephone modem is capable of a maximum of 56kbit/s or 56,000 bits per second. Not much, considering modern Internet sites with photographs, maps, streaming imagery, etc. Some providers have used the term "broadband" to indicate services which range from 64kbit/sec to up to 1Mbit/sec. However, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) a group of developed nations (including North America,Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and others) generally defines broadband Internet as equal to or faster than 256kbit/s and the USA FCC defines broadband as anything above 768kbit/s. By the way, a "gigabit" is a thousand times faster than a megabit or a billion bits/s. You may not have that fast of a service in your home but might come across this term in discussions of Ethernet fiber optic or copper twisted wire services.

"Broadband penetration" is a recent term indicating what percentage of the population of a nation has broadband access. It is now commonly used as a key economic indicator.

Though the USA invented the Internet (not Al Gore), the US is now listed by OECD as 15th in the world in access to broadband, having fallen from 12th place recently. The reason: we do not have a coherent national plan. Furthermore, we now rank behind nations like the Czech Republic, Mexico, Hungary, and Poland in cost of broadband service. Not wanting to sound like a blatant frankophile, but I must say that the French have a system that is four times faster than our standard, and their (better) service costs one half of ours. In general, the broadband penetration, is greater, and access, speed and the overall system is better in western Europe than it is here. Some reasons stated for our lagging position. We developed the technology first and while we tried out various options..shared telephone lines, then devoted-telephone lines and finally fiberoptic cables and wireless. One example: At Suffolk CC College--where when finally a thin line was snaked into our offices just when technology had advanced to the wireless stage and the worthless lines were abandoned. So they profited from our early experiments, then chose the best options and are now ahead of us. That's understandable and correctable. But don't accept the excuse that the reason for our lagging position is that we (USA) are so much bigger than western Europe. I've heard that one. Some one with a Sarah Palin view of geography tried to use that as an excuse. Not true. For from west to east from Spain to the Russian border it is about 2,300 miles and from Sicily to Finland south to north is about 2,400 miles. Those distances are greater than continental USA. Thus Europeans systems cover a larger area and do it cheaper and better.

See:http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/data/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207801621

For further information on broadband and how is broadband provided See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet_access#Broadband_worldwide