200 Billion Broadband Scandal

[raven27]

America's failure to deliver broadband -- a failure that has become absolute due to the Bell-cable duopoly -- also means the end of America's capability to innovate.

This was made clear to me recently by Ronald Baron Yokubaitis, who has been fighting (unsuccessfully) on behalf of competition for a decade.


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Innovation lost or gone abroad, is one of our talking points when we make the rounds in Austin or Washington. Name one innovative new Internet business started by a Bell or Cable Co.? Skype? Fon? Correro.de? NIH (not invented here).

The kids now growing up in Asia and the EU on 20-100Mbps, and even some on Gig-E, WILL interact in this broadband frontier and create the new applications that we Americans will be using, not NIH. While our 1-4 Mbps asymmetrical leftovers from IPTV's 16-18 Mbps will look like
dial up in three years.

We need our wide open "Wild West" of open Internet to get back in the game, rather than the "Back East" regime foisted on us that we fled. Internet Application Providers are global and stateless and might as well start acting that way. Which State (s) environment provides the better platform to operate? U.S? Netherlands? Hong Kong? You can't ignore the US, but it is losing in importance. Innovation driven off shore.LINK (http://200billionscandal.typepad.com/200_billion_broadband_sca/2006/02/what_we_are_los.html#more)

[egarrard]

I haven't heard anyone come online bragging about their 100Mbps internet connection. BellSouth delivers 6Mbps DSL here and we're definitely out in the boonies. I think what you're talking about is pretty much overblown.

How do you propose to rewire the US for the capacity to run those speeds? Rewiring some place like Hong Kong can be done relatively easily. Doing it in the US will take years. Plus, even with the snail's pace that you claim we are at, how do you get around the slow servers? My broadband connection usually is much faster than the servers where I go. Do you get instant page load even on here? No.

There are other problems to worry about first before we need concern ourselves with the inter connection.

[XenoS]

There are other problems to worry about first before we need concern ourselves with the inter connection.
There are always "other" problems, aren't there. Why do tomorrow what can be put off until the day after tomorrow? ;)

All joking aside, I think there is some truth to what is being said, even if perhaps it is slightly overblown for effect. But can you blame someone who sees what is coming from trying? You have to make grandiose claims or nobody will take any action, little alone listen to you. Sadly I think what we're seeing from the corporate sector is the same thing we've been seeing for several years now, a highly close minded protective attitude. Nobody wants to share anything or work together. They each want the pie all to themselves so to speak. In doing so they just end up closed off. What has been going on with the RIAA, and more recently the MPAA, is a perfect example. Not only that but it's the actions of these kinds of minorities that are having the most influence lately, which is why I think this closed off mentality is spreading. Make no mistake, you'll always get farther working together than lone wolfing it. Won't happen though unless each can see what is in it for them should they bother. That's where Asian communities have a leg up. They tend to do it for the benefit of society first, then reap the rewards for their efforts later. Or am I way off here?

[Tivon]

Most Americans, and probably others, don't care about their jobs. So when it comes to upgrading they stick to what works and don't want to learn anything else. It's lazyness...

[eire1274]

You know... I guess I just don't see the so-called issue.

We have super-broadband. Just, most people don't want to pay for it!

Heck, I'm using a 5Mb (cable-modem speed) wireless connection (seriously, CDMA, bridged through a cell phone), and that is just blowing my mind! The technology for all of this stuff is here, and it is working, but we are just too cheap to want to pay for it!

[wazman]

Fios is coming as well...

How fast does the internet need to be, anyway?

[XenoS]

How fast does the internet need to be, anyway?
Well, you know what Mr. Burns would say. I'd give it all up for a little bit more. ;)

Seriously, my choices are actually kind of limited where I live. Don't want to go with Shaw since their service isn't all that great, at least when I tested it several years ago. Plus they started doing that packet inspecting in order to throttle certain services, like Bittorrent for example, and I'm sure other perfectly legitiment ones will follow. The only other choice is ADSL, and prices dropped on this not too long ago which is great since it's more reasonable now for the high download speeds I get, but upload speed is still very slow thanks to be asynchronus.

Even if we all don't need more speed, it's still good for business, and especially society (distance learning and health care come to mind). If one company increases speeds while maybe managing to charge slightly less, everyone has no choice but to follow in order to compete. We, the consumers, win. This is exactly what happend in my area not too long ago. Shaw changed their service so my ISP had to follow. All of this is not nearly as important as penetration though as there are still a lot of communities out there in both the USA and Canada that are stuck with dial up.

Edit: Forgot to actually answer the question. The internet has to be fast enough to be able to handle 1080p HD streaming with 7.1 audio IMHO. It's fast enough for audio applications like buying from music stores or listening to podcasts and internet radio, but the next step is video, and I don't mean the low quality stuff we're seeing now. Imagine being able to have a huge choice of businesses to get your HD television from, and tons of channels all in HD. No more relying on limited local services that are slow to adapt to current and emerging markets.

[raven27]

Well, you know what Mr. Burns would say. I'd give it all up for a little bit more. ;)

Edit: Forgot to actually answer the question. The internet has to be fast enough to be able to handle 1080p HD streaming with 7.1 audio IMHO. It's fast enough for audio applications like buying from music stores or listening to podcasts and internet radio, but the next step is video, and I don't mean the low quality stuff we're seeing now. Imagine being able to have a huge choice of businesses to get your HD television from, and tons of channels all in HD. No more relying on limited local services that are slow to adapt to current and emerging markets.
With IPTV I would like the speed and I love the podcast and my Tivo is on Broadband.More and more things is coming out and you need Broadband who cares about downloading.I woul like too play my Xbox live and know that I have good speed.

[Tivon]

You know... I guess I just don't see the so-called issue.

We have super-broadband. Just, most people don't want to pay for it!

Heck, I'm using a 5Mb (cable-modem speed) wireless connection (seriously, CDMA, bridged through a cell phone), and that is just blowing my mind! The technology for all of this stuff is here, and it is working, but we are just too cheap to want to pay for it!

Aye... I'd like cable, but I can't budget it in with the bills. Heck, I just now got a raise to pay for voicemail. Maybe if I get another 60$ raise, then broadband could be in my future.

If they didn't ask so much money then those high techs would be here faster. I'm sorry, but I'd rather put my money back into assists rather than to be spending it all on luxury.

[raven27]

I did had Qwest now I have Comcast and it is saving me $30 a month :thumb .I do not make that much so I have too make so I try too save in any way.

[tanman_sg]

You're all lucky, in the US.

I pay $50 a month for unlimited 256k ADSL. Plans got more expensive after I got mime.

We pay 89c per minute for our cellphone calls too.


Some new company here is setting up another wireless internet service, which promises to be cheaper... Digging up cables in Hong Kong is easy because you should be able to get cheap labour from China or Thailand that can re-pave a road overnight. Not so easy elsewhere.

[Tivon]

I don't know.. people think it's easy because of the land size, but in truth places like China and Thailand have lots of things in the way. I just think it works because there are more smart people over there that will work hard labor jobs. In short, **** gets done.

[H-man]

Well I herd that some time this summer a new company is going to be setting up shop. Their going to offer download speeds of up to 150mbs also the signal will be transmitted via electric utility lines.

[Tivon]

Hmmm.. thought there was problems with that powerline Internet?
Cross channels or something? Dam.. think about getting hit by lightning.

[Saturn2888]

I actually think it's not that ppl won't spend, I think that it's American's and other companies trying to get rich and raising prices so no one buys the stuff.

Really, then they say, oh, no one's buying it, let's not bring in something else. Trust me, companies just don't realize that lower prices = really freakin' good sales.

Look, at Walmart, people will buy a lawnmower and they'll live on the 13th floor of an apartment building that is in the middle of New York City just bc the thing was damn cheap (if they thought it was).

Also, the internet or anything else computer in the US has a bad geeky image that only few elites know about so everyone else looks like a redneck and most of the population is such.

You can't blame people for not changing. I can't afford an HDTV, so I won't get one.

Wanna innovate and expand US? Lower the damn prices and for get about 75% profit and you'll make 90% profit bc you'll sell so many.

[Kindom934]

Wanna innovate and expand US? Lower the damn prices and for get about 75% profit and you'll make 90% profit bc you'll sell so many.

Maybe.

Cost of living itself (taxes) are quite high. Inflation for example. It's everybody for themselves. People want more money, company raises they pay which in terms raises their products. Just an endless circle. I won't be suprise in some 30 years from now, some hambuger will cost $10 bucks, but then again maybe the middle class income by then be around 75K a year.

[Saturn2888]

I doubt it. Maybe Hamburgers will go up in price, but companies can pay more and still be fine, the thing is, they raise prices to get 75% or more profit. CDs cost less than a penny to produce and then they sell 'em off for 50 cents each just about. Look at GMC and their employee discount. It was originally expensive for cars and how could they lower it? Because the cars cost much less that $2000 to produce bc they do it in mass quantities. It's cheaper to produce that way. People, the higher ups, are just money hungry and that's why the prices are so high. Trust me, they don't lose a dime if they sell it cheaper or raise people's pay. That's just an excuse.

[Kindom934]

I doubt it. Maybe Hamburgers will go up in price, but companies can pay more and still be fine, the thing is, they raise prices to get 75% or more profit. CDs cost less than a penny to produce and then they sell 'em off for 50 cents each just about. Look at GMC and their employee discount. It was originally expensive for cars and how could they lower it? Because the cars cost much less that $2000 to produce bc they do it in mass quantities. It's cheaper to produce that way. People, the higher ups, are just money hungry and that's why the prices are so high. Trust me, they don't lose a dime if they sell it cheaper or raise people's pay. That's just an excuse.

True.

Like how you mention about cars, mass quantities = junk imo. At lease then the people will have to go buy cars more often. :spin

[Artcwolf]

Fios is coming as well...

How fast does the internet need to be, anyway?

If you transfer files or work remotely, the faster the better.

If you're sitting around sending e-mails, dial up would do.

[Saturn2888]

No, dial-up wouldn't do bc of the fact that you have to dial. And if you get attachments... Also, it's a lot nicer to have broadband (even if it's slower bc then it's cheaper) so you can send and recieve e-mails 24/7. Also, some people use Outlook and need the VPN to access it. My mom does this, and she needs broadband bc she always recieves attachments and voice recordings in her e-mail. Dial-up shouldn't be used at all. Broadband all the way. Seriously, you can still have 56K and have broadband. If so, then it should cost less than $5 a month bc it's almost worthless other than the fact that it's 24/7 and reliable.

This is in no way political: If Europe has more than we do, something's wrong. I'm sorry, but America being 7 trillion in debt would tell me that we should be on the edge of technology so we can get rid of the debt and have people import American made products. Maybe something like free or cheaper internet would give more people money to buy things with. It's a freakin' monthly fee almost everyone pays so cable and phone companies can afford to recieve less money if all we're gettin' is 5-6 MBps max as the fastest and most expensive speed.