• We Need National Broadband Superhighway
A 2001 Brookings Institution study estimated the widespread adoption of basic broadband could add $500 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.2 million new jobs per year. The interstate Highway System, started during the 1950s contributed 31 percent to U.S. productivity growth, for example.
Telecommuting is an option for many people now thanks to the Internet, email and instant messaging; but 24% of the people who use the internet at home log on with dial-up access. (Oops, wrong. See comment and response below.)
That’s a problem, because workers report that the most significant barrier to telework is slow online access. So while technology has opened the doors to telework for many, communications remains a formidable barrier for some folks especially in rural areas where only 31% have access to broadband compared to 80% in urban areas.
Even for those who have access to broadband telecommunications there’s a lot of improvement needed. U.S. broadband services come in 14th in speed and 21st in price compared to Europe and Asia. In late 2007 that the average subscription price for home broadband was $50 in the U.S. but just $31 in Finland.
Unfortunately, the high U.S. price doesn’t reflected faster speeds. The average U.S. advertised broadband download speed was 8.86 megabits per second, below the average of 13.7Mbs, and far behind South Korea at 43.3 Mbs, France at 44.1 Mbs and Japan at a whopping 93.69 Mbs.
Figured on an average price per Mbs the U.S. is at $2.83 vs Japan at just 13¢.
A project as wide in scope as the Intersate Highway System or even the ‘30s Rural Electrification program could make a huge difference in our economy. Failure to do it could too. A separate Brookings study from May 2002 suggests that “failure to improve broadband performance could reduce U.S. productivity growth by 1% per year or more.”
August 8th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Actually, according the Pew survey, only 10% of home users are still on dial-up, not 24%:
August 8th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Yike! You‘re absolutely right. I was distracted in the middle of writing this post and completely garbled the point.
What I meant to write was that 24% of rural dial up users say the would upgrade to broadband, but don’t have access to it.
BTW, another point worth mentioning here is that broadband has a many meanings including mere 1.5Mbs DSL, admittedly banter 26Kbs or 54Kbs dial-up (remember the big advance when 1200 baud Hayes modems were introduced?), but a long way from 100Mbs service available in Japan.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
This is a very good point. I still struggle with DSL, and wonder why broadband is so much more expensive here in the US. Time to step up internet providers!
Thanks for the article.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
hi, cool web site and good articles.
The The first step is to learn how to find out what your Internet speed is.The Internet speed is determined by 2 components: the download rate and the upload rate of data which are usually measured in Kilobits per second.
Then after you know the upload and download rate, you can use tools or tweaks to improve your internet speed, or take the decision to change your ISP.
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