Thu
Aug 30 2007
01:19 pm

No...I didn't say that. That is a statement from the person writing the history of Japan's rise to superiority on the Internet, Thomas Bleha.

Want to get your rah rah USA feelings hurt? Check this out:

The average download speed of an Internet customer in Japan is 30 times what it is in the USA.

Even Canada...Canada is 4 times faster than us.

America is getting screwed!

Internet Access

Previously, I have heard the argument that Japan has better quality of service and faster internet speeds because they are a smaller country geographically than the US. But according to this article from July last year, (link...),
Japan has more internet enabled wireless devices than internet enabled wired devices.

The other night I saw on MSNBC that Japan is the first country where more people their population currently access the Internet via mobile phone than any other type of internet device (this includes desktop computers, laptops, gaming consoles, pdas, etc...).

Because of advances in the Wireless medium, the US has no excuse as to why we cannot provide a quality Internet service that places us in the top five in the world for speed. We have the technology, the market, and the money. As globalization rapidly gains momentum, we will need the infrastructure in place to compete.

Can we compete in a networked world with 1 Meg speeds?

I'd love a meg upload speed

I'd love a meg upload speed too. :) I have the business-level satellite service, but that slows to less than dial-up, often down to 0, during busy periods. Both cable and satellite service are essentially shared--big party lines--and both suffer from the Tragedy of the Commons ((link...)).

And we don't have cable or DSL out here either. Not even cell service.

When I moved here we had world-class Internet available: dual ISDN (about 128k). Although we still have that in theory, it stopped working for us some years ago, and we never could get anyone to fix it.

-- OneTahiti

Even Canada has better

Even Canada has better Internet than we do.

-- OneTahiti

I'd love to have a meg

Highspeed is unavailable where I live.

I connect at 44k...Pitifull.

What would happen?

Dare I ask what would happen if Roane County invested in providing quality high speed internet access to all it's residents? I think that higher Internet speeds will bring higher household income.

1) Easier access to information and data for the whole family
2) Ability to conduct start-ups online (this is quite difficult at 1 Mbps speeds for many type of online business plus the faster your internet the more you get done in a business day)
3) Ability to better oneself at the click of button with online educational material and training in any field imaginable
4) A way to receive a global outlook without leaving home
5) A way to have experiences not available within Roane County and bring knowledge and events to Roane County that aren't currently avaiable.
6) Ability to network at high speeds.
7) A tool for our children that is an integral part of today's high speed world.

I could go on and on....

The benefits are unquestionable...

but so is the cost. It might be interesting to ask the Caldwells how cheap the infrastructure for fiberoptic connectivity was to put in just in their small development called Ladds Landing. And fiberoptics has the best bandwidth of anything going right now.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I'm asking how you think Roane County could finance it on behalf of all the citizens who would like to have broadband access to the furthest reaches of the county?

RB

RB,

I don't think the cost is significant compared to the reward, but I am in a position to check that one out and I'll report back as soon as I get a figure.

Good question, though.

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