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41 Comments
- spyda45, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28It's true that we're a larger nation than what Japan is, but I don't see any of the big teleco's busting their ass to improve service, nor increase speeds to consumers. I hate to sound like the typical person bashing big business, but seriously, they're more concerned about their stock price than improving their business model to incorporate these kind of speeds. I would still like to see how internet over power lines is progressing.
- jd33, on 10/12/2007, -26/+47Plus the Japs are crazy little *****.
- strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -10/+31Population density. You have noticed that the US is significantly larger than Japan, right?
Japan — Population: 127,463,611 - 377,835 sq km
United States — Population: 298,444,215 - 9,826,630 sq km (8348174 sq km without Alaska)
See the issue yet? - airencracken, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20@ Skyshock
Agreed. Capitalism no longer exists in the USA, we're stuck with large trusts, it's like the gilded age all over again. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+22It's because no one has stepped in yet for the consumer. The major wireless providers are content with giving us ***** service and we're basically all taking it in the rear and not saying a damn thing about it.
- trer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16"They're YEARS ahead of us!" - Homer Simpson
- rowlodge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18we need a japanese president i guess...
- SanjayM, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14@Aliengoods
Think outside the box, once you have 5Gbps mobile you no longer even need local storage, think about having portable music/video player that could simply stream media from your box at home, forget NAND and miniHardDisks. You wouldn't need to even wait to get home to sync your player to get new media just do it there and then. - nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14The North American telcos prefer to make the cheap, quick buck by screwing customers rather than invest in the better solution and win by actually providing people with the superior service they want.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11i second skyshocks comment. they (the wireless service providers) act like they are doing us a favor for giving us unlimited texting nowadays. thats been status quo in asia for some time now...
- fullback, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Japan didn't nationalize anything. This is no different than the Japanese internet infrastructure, or other industries such as electronics or automobiles. Japanese companies invest retained earnings more. This childish, attack-dog mentality by Americans against anything and anyone who does anything better is getting tedious.
And by the way, the old argument that the US is "too big" doesn't wash. Why doesn't any state or region of similar size have 3G or 100Mbps fiber internet providers? A few US companies have wrestled the market into something resembling that of a banana republic through bribery masquerading as lobbying, all the while knowing the average American is clueless to the fact that other places in the world are living in the 21st century of telecommunications. - adaptdev, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9It is because the Japanese Nationalized those networks and built the infrastructure to support the 3G concept.
Our government would never finance such an endeavor...too busy going into deficit for oil. - aegis9975, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7>>I'd rather have slower wireless networks that I don't have to pay for through tax dollars.
Face it, a lot of technology is developed by government support. Internet was through DARPA, not to mention multiple billions to develop new bombers and jet fighters. In this case, DoCoMo is using primarily their own money from high profits from their mobile customers. There is a reason Japanese have enjoyed 100Mbs internet connections for half-decade, Japanese adopt new technology much faster. Big thing in Japan right now is DTV sending terrestrial digital broadcast TV to mobile phones. - SuckMyDigg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7"They're"
- gheide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Great --- mobile spam bots... You think we have a problem now with spam/hack bots???
- Sandkat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I believe the correct term is "shenanigans". But you must be careful, calling shenanigans is a serious accusation.
- vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@"I'd rather have slower wireless networks that I don't have to pay for through tax dollars."
The problem is that your tax money is going to be spent one way or another without your consent. Personally, if they have to spend it, I'd like to get faster internet connection in the process. Otherwise they are just building bridges to nowhere... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The pop density figures you give are skewing the real numbers. Nobody expects Idaho to be getting this kind of service! Miami, NY, Chicago, LA, you get the picture.
- berwiki, on 10/12/2007, -11/+14@strictnein
ummm...I remember CNN showing the 300,000,000th illegal immigrant running over the border a few weeks back. Please update your roster to include Elian Gonzales-Habanero-Jalapeno. - fozzie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Population density. You have noticed that the US is significantly larger than Japan, right?
Japan — Population: 127,463,611 - 377,835 sq km
United States — Population: 298,444,215 - 9,826,630 sq km (8348174 sq km without Alaska)
See the issue yet?"
Yes but shear density is a problem in and of its own. I know we are more diverse but they had to hurdle technology advances to get switching speeds that fast in such a dense area with such a huge population. I would love to see the US ma bells tackle that. "Oh we can't, our infrastructure cannot support fiber to the home!" BAH. It's all about the dollar folks. - dextroz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4density was a good excuse when the ***** had to lay copper to every house, but with nodal base stations with wireless coverage - geographical area is a ***** statement!
- dopyoman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Politics is the main reason we are so far behind the rest of the developed world. Bureaucrats.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@geekee
Huh...the tax here in Japan is very low!... So, Ultra-fast broadband AND low taxes dude. - hellotekla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Unlimited texting?
I don't know if it is status quo in all of Asia. Most of Japan's mobile phone providers (AU by KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, and JPhone aka Vodafone aka the recently renamed Softbank) charge a small fee. In 2003, Vodafone charged about 3 cents per text outside of your plan's set data numbers sent to non-Vodafone customers, and about 1 cent to Vodafone members. NTT DoCoMo had a similar price.
On a related thought to why American citizens suffer from "slow" telecomm upgrades, I believe it also has to do with the way Americans communicate now. Telephone talk time in Asia is usually more expensive than texting, and when I say more expensive, I mean there are no cheap plans where you can talk for free at night or on the weekends. This is one reason why data on Asian cellphones is very important. Secondly, in the case of Japan, though there are huge strides in internet speeds, and though there are a large number of customers on the bandwagon now, it is still much more common for the age demographic which even uses this new technology to have a cellphone with which to communicate instead of a personal computer. When compared to South Korea, of course, Japanese look bad, but Americans look downright horrible. Again, it is all about the way in which people choose to communicate and how much they are willing to pay.
Online bill pay, "downloadable" currently-airing TV shows (something that has been tested since around 2003 in Japan) and music seem to be the biggest reasons for Americans to want more from telecos. But if Americans are to judge by the current standards and methods, it is not surprising that they cannot even begin to fathom what they are missing. I, for one, will be extremely happy when America quits with this "fill in your own checkbook with a pencil" business and just allows insertion of checkbook ledgers into the machine for automatic printing. Many countries do this, not just those in Asia, actually...but that is off topic, so forgive me. :) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1strictnein: I'd say it's more a problem at a corporate level than because of country area. If the US networks wanted to roll out newer networks, they'd have done so in major urban areas first, which is normal and obviously much easier than covering 100% of a country.
Even Ireland (where I live) is far ahead of the US, with 3.75G (much faster than regular 3G) deployed in September and now widely available even in rural areas. - ch28kid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1agree, we kinda behind
living in japan for 3 months makes me feel so outdate once i came back to canada.
my cousin do everything on their cell phone... like live tv, order train / movie tickets, download coupons for restaurant - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@strictnein
No dude, that excuse comes up every time the US is shown to be behind. There is NO excuse for not having such a system in the heavily built-up areas of the US. Your Telcos simply DONT WANT TO. Don't assume subscribers in Japan have 100% coverage either. - osc1882, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1THIS KITCHEN IS BITCHEN!
Ok, that had nothing to do with anything.
Anyways, comcast is what? 6? And even that they can't handle. If someone is using their internet to much they call you up with a nasty gram. - amfr, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Dammit, I just bought a 20 mpbs FiOS connection :(
/sob - geekee, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5The US system is more capitalist then Japan's system. I'd rather have slower wireless networks that I don't have to pay for through tax dollars.
- aussieaubs, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3If I build a freeway and no one else is using it - of course I can go over 200KMp/h ... 3G had the same theoretical speeds when it first started up 5 years ago.... i call baloney!!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3the japs and chinks are almost as crazy as those ***** and spix
- Stonekeeper, on 10/12/2007, -12/+10I dont think population density is the problem. Oh wait... what density are you talking about?
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Maybe we're just biding our time until we invade Japan.
- JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3... read the constitution before posting please.
- bluetrevian, on 10/12/2007, -18/+8Holy hell... why is the US so far behind in the telecom race? Is it geography? Economics? Someone help us out here. I fancy using Mobile WiMAX sometime in my life, but at this rate... it's never gonna happen.
- aliengoods, on 10/12/2007, -19/+7The better question is WHY SHOULD THE U.S. CARE? While having 5Gbps download speeds on my cell phone would be awesome, I can't think of one practical application for it, much less any application which requires it. I have wireless at home and office which is 8Mbps, and that's fast enough for anything I do.
If I lived in an area where I could take a train or bus to work, then streaming video would be nice, but I drive and listen to my MP3 player. And for any application that did make use of that bandwidth would cost a kings ransom to use. I'm all for progress, but I don't think the U.S. needs to keep up with the Jones' of the world. - kazuhima, on 10/12/2007, -28/+11@jd33
could you please refrain from using that word >_> - Eddm, on 10/12/2007, -25/+4Exactly, they're "Orientals".
- moose09876, on 10/12/2007, -31/+9@kazuhima
Go ***** yourself. - JohnC86, on 10/12/2007, -26/+2what word is the bad one? japs? cos that's just an abbreviation surely? how is that bad?
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