News America in broadband backwater?

Love. Tears. Romance. Like millions of other Japanese, Midori Kato has been transfixed by the Korean soap opera Winter Sonata. But the 42-year-old freelance editor started watching the weekly drama even before it became available on broadcast television in April. Instead of watching on her TV, she logged on to the Web over a blazing 100-megabit-per-second broadband link. The video is just as crisp as her TV screen, right down to the tears on heroine Choi Ji Woo's cheeks. "I'm hooked," Kato says.

Don't expect to share in the travails of Winter Sonata's lovers anytime soon. That's because the U.S. is becoming something of a broadband backwater, a place where almost no one can do what Kato and millions of other Japanese take for granted. Many Americans may think that the U.S. is making progress because the number of broadband Net links continues to climb, but that misses the bigger picture.

The U.S. has steadily fallen behind other nations, both in terms of the share of the population with broadband and the speed of those connections. Consider this: In 2000 the U.S. ranked third in broadband penetration among the nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. Last year it dropped to 10th place. That's behind recognized leaders such as Japan and Korea, as well as countries like Belgium and Canada. "It's ridiculous that the U.S., of all places, is so far behind in this key measure of economic development," says Tim Johnson, publisher of London's Point Topic, which analyzes world broadband trends.

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I think that nearly anyone else here that lives in the US can agree that the US has fallen WAY behind other countries in this area. You've got 3rd-world countries with 100mb connections on the cheap while our broadband is 512k cable at 50 bucks a month..

 

yeah it blows here, im on dial up, and my only hope for a faster isp is $90/mo satalite =(

 

yeah, sadffffff is a bit behind the times...
(you mention dollars so you could be just about anywhere.)

 

Sorry, I disagree 100%. I travel far too much to take this sitting down.

For example, except for the VERY CHEAPEST motels in the us, a hi-speed connection is a standard given amenity.

No matter where I travel outside the US even a simple dial-up connection is difficult to manage unless you are going to the most expensive hotels.

Now when it comes to Korea, I must confess to only having been in the most expensive hotels there (at least since the 90's), so I can not say they were as defficiant as the rest of the world.

I dread though going to any other country because I know I will be spending long hours, many dollars, and enduring terrible connections just to glance at my most precious emails.

And I continue to find it ironic how the populations of these countries like to claim they are so much better connected than the untited states and never realize as I explane at that very moment I can not get connected in their advanced country.

Its all very provential.

 

You can hardly take the net connections in hotels as the standard for the country. Hotels are designed to rip off american tourists which is why you are willing to spend more money for a net connection in your room than most people in that country get in their house. I don't really see how you can disagree with the article 100% if you haven't used the kind of connections people can get in these countries.

 

Sounds like we cater for the people as to speak, as in home users get decent connections but its not in hotels. And over there all the hotels have it but home users don't
It's like you have it in hotels to keep tourists happy

Death

 

I don't know where you live, but where I live (Central NY State - near Syracuse), I have no access to DSL of any kind, cable is 512k max at 50 bucks (Time Warner) and satellite is $80/mo. I have many friends who don't even have access to cable broadband or DSL and their only options are dial-up or satellite. Hotels and the like have the revenue to lease high-speed dedicated circuits and offer access to their patrons. It may be different in and around cities, but as far as the bulk of America goes, broadband isn't a viable or affordable option.

 

Tourists? I am talking about business. Business travelers keep most of these places in business. They HAVE to have them in their room because a business person will not even consider booking there unless its available and most won’t book unless, as I mentioned it’s a free additional amenity like electricity.

In the United States, hotels even motels know that providing a line is part of their business model. Overseas it’s a luxury.

Tourism is an economic sideline that should not be an indicator of any long term economic factors. Instead, follow the business people to business centers if you want to know important economic factors. Outside the US, business travelers will find internet access a hassel.

Only the average European Airport and its business district is as well equipped as the average US city.

 

Yes, well the large moderately populated regions of the United States are of course what brings the average down. Korea or the UK don't have to contend with these type of regions. Even in Canada, their vast areas of land just aren't widely populated. Even the deserts in the US are more populated than most regions of Canada.

However, in the central business districts in the US, where business both need and more regularly use this technology and where it will have the most economic impact, it is quiet obvious that the US is not falling behind. If, however you factor in Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, the Redwood Forest, the Bad Lands, the Alaskan tundra, the Painted Desert, The Mississippi Delta, Yellowstone National Park, The Florida Everglades, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Alabama - it's bound to lower the national average.

You can probably find more dirt roads in the United States than in any other industrialized nation. This doesn't mean that we have the most backward highway system. It means we have a wider contingent of situations to deal with than most countries. In fact Germany is the only place that impresses me to have a comperable or better Highway system than the US. If you grow up in Louisiana and never leave the state, you might not agree though.

I would argue that $80 a month is not unreasonable anyway. If that is too much for you, you don't need it. This is why the US runs on a free market system and not a social system (generally speaking).

 

it's free as long as your willing to pay the extra $30 a night....

 

I live in cincinnati ohio USA. My dsl is 3000/768 and is $32 a month. fast enough and very cheap compared to most. but.... 100mb/s..... boner.

 

im in the same exact boat
stupid small town

right i would like to know were your staying and at what rate

 

I work for a very cheap company. eg, I just went to office depot to buy my own dry erase markers for work. Therefore, I usually stay in the cheapest places in any given area (with the exception I mentioned - Korea). We seem to have a contract type deal with La Quinta. Their rates are reasonable, usually $30-$50 a night and high speed internet is the norm - not the exception. There is some other place we use regularly, but I don't recall their name.

Days Inn is the only place I have had trouble with on a regular basis, but they are only usually $5 cheaper and out of the way of business areas (I have only used them on my personal traveling not my business traveling).

So, this is not to say every La Quinta in the world is internet ready, but appearently the ones in business districts are.

This same class of in-expensive business ready hotel outside the US is internet barren. I have yet to stay in a hotel outside the US which is cheaper than $100 a nite and has high-speed internet.

Look - when the US is screwed up, I don't mind admitting it - I am just relating how this statistic is skewed and for practical economic gain and usefulness, the US is most certainly not behind in internet connectivity.

 

i have paid triple or quadruple that and not had internet accese.
i had it once at a best western but it was a pay by minute and a ridiculios rate

 

Come to think of it, I did have to pay extra for hi-speed access once at a best western. It was the only one I have stayed out in a few years and it was way out of the way of any normal business things - so I don't know if it was the region or the company. I think it was a little less than a year ago in Alabama or NW florida.

--
EDIT: Wait - yeah I remeber now, it was in South Caralina. Anyway it was a town without a 4 story building, so what is to be expected?
--

OK, but this is my point, here we are comparing some ho-dunk town in a southern state to Munich, Paris, Zurich, Seoul, Taipei and the like. Does that really make sense?

If we compare LA to Paris, forget it. If we compare NYC to Munich, forget it, etc etc . . .

So anyway - I am speaking only from my personal practical experience for the recent past - say 3 years.

I would start looking for La Quinta's if I were you.

 

Firstly, this article is not about business, it's about home usage. I haven't even heard of a home having 100mb in the US. Have you?
Second, in the hotels I've stayed at (all 4-star+) in the US (New Orleans, Orlando, San Fransisco) and in Germany (Munich, a smaller one near the border of Austria) and in Austria (Vienna and Salzburg), they all had hi-speed access... BUT they were all pay-per-minute (and very expensive) and none were greater than 1mb...

 

The thing to remember about japan is: Its so freakin small, for the cost of laying fiber cost to coast in the US you can do a few loops around japan. Which makes me wonder why broadband in the UK sucks so bad?

 

While the Lower 48 states may be good for broadband connections, I can sure tell you that Alaska is like the Ethiopia of Broadband (No offense to any Ethiopians here.) But really its quite sad, even my 512KB connection is a rarity around here... I envy your 3000KB connections

 

cable around here is $40 a month for 3mbit and dsl is only 768 kb max
but i guess thats what we get for being the microsoft state

 

I dont know about that. New York has had dialup conections that are widely avalable free of charge for at least the past 9-10 years. Its called Met Conect. Broadband has goten better as well. Time warner ofers 5megabit lines for under 45bux a month and my DSL cost me 50bux a month and I get 1.5megabits downstream and 384kbits upstream. My friends have road runer and they got upgraded to 5megabit lines down and 768up for free. The only areas that dont have broadband around here are isolated areas such as upstate NY where it is not cost efficient for a company to provide it there due to the lack of users. Most cities in the US have oc (sonet) lines that are in the multiple gigabit and multiple lines. There is even an efford to have wireles service for New York city and its 5 borrows. Also verizon is planing to bring fiberoptic lines to the homes of users in the near future. There is also a push in congres that wants to pass a law that makes broadband lines a standard telecom required in every habitated area in the US.