Why US broadband Internet is slow and expensive - Updates
"Prices in (other) countries are a third or a fifth of the prices that we're paying - and they're getting better speed"
New: Summary of the FCC's broadband Internet goals here.
Update: Check your provider's Internet speed at www.broadband.gov
Earlier: "The Federal Communications Commission says its much anticipated national broadband plan, which will be unveiled [this week], will help make Internet access faster, cheaper and more pervasive," writes NPR here.
"Broadband in other developed countries is generally faster and cheaper than it is in the U.S.," Harvard scholar Yochai Benkler, who did an FCC study comparing national broadband programs, told NPR. "You're looking at prices in the leading countries that are a third or a fifth of the prices that we're paying — and they're getting better speeds for it."
That's because most countries have national phone monopolies that can be forced to rent their wires, cheap, to low-cost providers. But the US broke up our phone monopoly, AT&T, in the 1970s, leaving a string of regional, cable and specialized wire providers, who don't see why they should have to cut their profits so some rival company can give consumers cheap service. Maybe wireless will be cheaper, someday, NPR concludes.
Also: "U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours," raising today's speeds by 25 times faster, writes Reuters here.