more on Om Malik on: Shrinking consumer broadband choices?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: October 15, 2004 9:09:39 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Re: Om Malik on: Shrinking consumer broadband 
choices?
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com



[Note:  This comment comes from reader David Isenberg.  In my comments 
I was being 'kind' to the FCC since a number of readers of this list 
work there.  David is quite correct in his remarks below.  My best 
guess is that the U.S. is now down to somewhere in the low 20s.  The 
fact that the FCC is still using the old No. 11 figure when there is a 
more recent ITU figure just goes to show you how much in denial they 
are on this issue.  If we can't get the authoritative government agency 
to tell the truth on this issue, then we can't expect very much from 
our Congress.  DLH]

> From: "David S. Isenberg" <isen () isen com>
> Date: October 15, 2004 12:01:21 AM PDT
> To: dewayne () warpspeed com
> Cc: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: Re: [Dewayne-Net] Om Malik  on: Shrinking consumer broadband 
> choices?
>
> Dewayne,
>
> Even #13 is wrong by now -- this summary statistic comes from data
> that are over a year old.  If you look at relative growth rates, it is 
> likely
> that by now the U.S. has fallen to #15, and probably lower (because
> the data the ITU has published, which I'm projecting, are only 
> collected
> from the top 15 broadband per capita countries).
>
> That is, it is probable that there are nations that the last ITU report
> ranked below #15 (which we do not see in the top-15 report)
> that have per capita broadband growth rates much higher than the U.S.
> These would rise to above #15 the next time the ITU reports, so without
> a huge growth spurt in U.S. broadband uptake, the U.S. might not even
> be in the next  ITU broadband report on the top 15 broadband per capita
> nations.
>
> This is why I've been saying that the U.S. is becoming a second rate
> nation for broadband connectivity.  I'm not using a mere figure of 
> speech.
>
> The above takes the definition of broadband as a given, but we know 
> that
> the U.S. has so-called broadband connections that are 100 times slower
> than they should be (or 100 times more expensive, take your pick).
> In Japan they're even rolling out gigabit-per-second Fiber to the Home
> service priced at less than US$40 a month, see
> http://isen.com/blog/2004/10/in-japan-one-gigabitsec-for-40-month.html
>
> David I
> -------


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