A stunning statistic in the WSJ Ed Page today. The lead editorial, Broadband Fiasco (paid site only, sorry). continues an Ed Page crusade for removing "bundling" regulation that makes it unprofitable to provide broadband quality service infrastructure. If your phone company runs fiber to your house, they can be forced to lease it to a competitor at a financial loss. (This is what we call fair, in gub'mint speak.)
After leading the technology boom in the 1990s, the U.S. now ranks 11th world-wide in high-speed Internet use per capita, behind the likes of Germany, Canada -- even Italy. In South Korea, the global leader, 73% of households have broadband. The number in the U.S. is 38%, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings.So we're chasing capital out of the telecom sector and consigning our citizenry to rank eleventh in adoption of broadband.
FCC Chief Powell is on the right side of this argument but the dunces are arrayed in confederacy against him. This morning on PRI's "Marketplace" (that's business news for those who hate business), some left-wing advocacy group was on decrying the Comcast bid for Disney as a "product of Bush's new rules allowing a single company to control the entire universe, bla, bla, bla..."
Meanwhile, it's deemed okay for the US to rank eleventh in broadband adoption. Scandalous!
Posted by jk at February 11, 2004 09:08 AM