United States Falling Behind in Broadband

Posted on April 14, 2005

73% of South Koreans have broadband access while 20% of U.S. citizens don't even have the option of obtaining broadband Internet access. And to make things worse our broadband access is much slower than some countries. How did the U.S. get behind so quickly in Internet connection speed?

The OECD is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. ranked third in Internet speed in 2000 according to the OECD. Now it ranks only 11th. The OECD ranks the broadband speed for the top 30 economies. South Korea is the current broadband speed leader.

Canada also has much better broadband availability than the U.S. Bloomberg reports that some critics are blaming the government for not allowing more competition in the broadband market.

Bloomberg says, "If cable companies were forced to open up their lines, over-night 80% of the U.S. would have more than one broadband supplier to choose from. Theoretically at least, that would drive down prices and force companies to offer enticing service packages like phone and TV delivered via the Web."