What is Digg?126 Comments
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -13/+69The author seems shocked that the US isnt top. Like its their divine right or something.
- Terasiel, on 05/22/2008, -3/+32In my country of Kazakhstan, we google food so we know what we aren't going to be having tonight.
- blackjack75, on 05/22/2008, -3/+31Note that broadband penetration doesn't mean we have higher speeds. I live in Switzerland and although I guess it's true a lot of people have broadband, as opposed to dialup, we've been lagging behind others in terms of speed for years. It's only getting better now but neighbouring France had 20mbits for 19 Euros when we still had to pay 50Euros for 3mbits. And don't get me started on Japan of course.
- CasinoJack, on 05/22/2008, -0/+24The 'Web' was invented at CERN while the Internet was invented in the USA - What we use today could not exist without the initial innovations of CERN or DARPA.
- justinx0r, on 05/22/2008, -4/+26Nope. It was invented by the US. Look up ARPANET.
- kingmanic, on 05/22/2008, -1/+17You comparison is flawed as those major cities aren't denser then US cities. So what exactly is your point? Rolling out the ADSL 2.5 and higher speed cable in Edmonton, AB is no harder then spokane, WA.Rolling out Infrastructure in Toronto is just as hard and easy as LA. The point is the telecom monopolies in place in the US are content with the current situation and until there is demand for change, there will be no change.
You are suggesting that Canada is more urban then the US, check any stats on this Canada has virtually the same distribution of urban vs rural. (CA 77% urban vs US 75% urban vs Japan at 78%. Urban pop. Densities greater in the US and Japan). I think you are consuming the idea that 95% of the Canadian populace live within 100km of the US border with the idea that most of them live in cities. About 77% do, not 95%. - BigManOnCampus, on 05/22/2008, -3/+16When you don't have a warm beach to go to, webcams of warm beaches with bikini bodies become your best use of free time.
- sexybobo, on 05/22/2008, -15/+27This is kinda flawed. Yes Canada has a low population density but the majority of Canadians live in larger cities. it is really easy to get broadband rolled out to 95% of your population if 94% of them live in 10 major cities.
Kinda like in japan they just have to have broadband running to tokyo for 1/4 their population to have access to it. It is not like the USA were the majority of people live in suburbs and they don't have to burry millions of miles of fiber to connect every one like they do in the US - kingmanic, on 05/22/2008, -12/+23Since it was invented there, and the US is more affluent per capita you'd figure they'd have a better system.
- Cattywampus, on 05/22/2008, -0/+9I'd say that they ARE doing their job: making it so citizens can communicate with each other without going outside in the freezing cold.
- Typhoon2009, on 05/22/2008, -3/+12$50 a month... 15Mbps down... 2Mbps up... thanks a lot Verizon. Really. ***** *****.
- dark_helmet, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9It all depends on their definition of broadband. Canada is beating the US, and for the most part there is no FTTH in Canada, so waiting on FIOS is fairly irrelevant. Canada faces the same (if not worse) infrastructure complications than the US does. Canada has an even lower population density so there are fewer subscribers to foot the bill for the massive amounts of fiber. We also have a giant roadblock called the CRTC which is screwing everyone over in terms of blocking competition between cable companies for some reason.
- philodygmn, on 05/22/2008, -2/+10No, he's mocking the US for getting flogged by its monopoly corporations despite having vastly more resources to plough into infrastructure than most of the rest of the world, likely including the countries ahead of us.
- aznwild0, on 05/22/2008, -0/+8The difference is that Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland all have most of the following: a good percentage of citizens going into higher education, a majority of their population in urban centers, a liberal population (relative to the US), low government corruption and a high Human Development Index. They all tend to be fairly social countries.
- whiteknives, on 05/22/2008, -5/+13Because out of all those countries, the United States has the largest infrastructure to deal with. ISP's can't keep up because that's a hell of a lot of fiber to run. A lot of us are still waiting on FiOS.
- headzoo, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7Clearly some people still think WWW == Internet.
- bjornski, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8WE'RE NUMBER FIFTEEN! WE'RE NUMBER FIFTEEN!
GO USA!
Next up. Let's cheer our leadership in education and health care! - Typhoon2009, on 05/22/2008, -4/+10And sending packets was invented in the US. Without that, CERN wouldn't have had *****.
- omenmedia, on 05/22/2008, -1/+6No, I think it's just that Danes and Dutchies really, really like pr0n.
- Oppslagsverk, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5Cold? OK. Dark? Well in summer we have daylight almost 24/7. This is awfully off topic.
- TaraTLC, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5I have family that lives on a farm 1.5 hours of Saskatoon, they have broadband. Smaller cities like Moosejaw (32k people), Prince Albert (34k) etc also have broadband.
My father works for a cable company in BC on Vancouver Island. They manage to get broadband to people who have houses way up in the mountains... - protodon, on 05/22/2008, -2/+7While it would be really great to have 100% broadband penetration in every corner of the US, I think we're doing damn good for a country of this size, population and standard of living. Not one country is the same as ours in those respects and therefore we cannot compare things like broadband availability and expect them to be equal in all countries.
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -3/+8Internet in the US is crap. Cumcast have monopoly over some areas...so *****.
- Chandon, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Yea, because there's a serious problem in Northern Europe with people being able to heat and light their homes. Wait... that's false.
- scamper22, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5what is this need for a national broadband strategy?
I'm Canadian and i don't know where the envy comes from. Our cell phone plans and data plans suck compared to the US. Out internet is certainly not cheaper. - mswope, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4We also have a lot of entrenched Telcos which have local monopolies that are tacitly approved by the FCC. And, the FCC is something that other countries aren't stuck with either...
Why put in FTTH if it's easier to sue the cable companies or get the FCC or PUCs to tariff them to death. And, the cable companies seem like they *compete* to be the lowest, scum-sucking, bottom-feeders in the food chain. - inactive, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4if only we (the usa) were actually better at everything (as it is hyped that we are) it would be really nice to live here but....we're not
- TexMexMatt, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5My friend in Sweden lives 1 mile from his neighbor and his neighbor is another mile away and they got fiber. How?
First the county subsidized it (and built their own fiber optic network) and then they all chipped in to dig down the fiber cables and used some vacation days to do it and now he has 100/100, VOIP and IPTV for 70 bucks a month. Didnt cost him that much to begin with. I think he invested a couple of thousands.
Now he have several ISPs to choose from so he probably could get something cheaper. The ISPs don't own the cable. The just supply the cable on the other end of it. Much cheaper for them since they don't have to spend money.
The value of his home has gone way up and there are more people willing to move there now thanks to this. This isn't the only place that they done this either.
If they can do it, shouldn't you be able to do it too? Or you just lazy bunch of redneck hicks? Or is it that you really honestly believe that Verizon are so eager to roll out FIOS to you and that the market will roll over when you flaunt the cash and beg you to spend your money so they can give you fiber? They will never do that. You want it, you dig. Build a fiber optic network with you neighbors and then you let the ISPs compete over who gets to rent it from you. But that is never going to happen either because Verizon and the other companies will spend lots money on your corrupt politicians and have them write a law forbidding you to build that so they dont have to compete with you. Dont say that wont happen because it already has. - koenkai, on 05/22/2008, -3/+7Actually, kingmanic, I believe you might be missing the point. Maps do a good job of illustrating sexybobo's point. Take a look at the Canadian population density map (I'm using an old map, b/c that's the latest official Canadian govt. map I could find):
http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss/Maps/ThematicMaps/ ...
Note the *geographic area* in which population density is >1/km. Look at the land mass that encompasses. Now compare that to:
http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/512popdn.pdf
(again, a somewhat old map, but it's from the official US Census site, so at least I know it should be accurate). Note the geographic area in which the population density is > 10/mile. We're talking half of the continental US and vast portions of the pacific coast of the US. That's significantly larger than the geographic area of pop. > 1/km in Canada. And that's the real point.
Clearly, looking at it from purely a geographic area/land mass perspective, the US requires a much more extensive infrastructure network in order to support its population and population dispersion. It's significantly less expensive to provide the infrastructure for Iceland (or Canada) when the geographic area to be covered is a fraction of what it would take for similar coverage in the US. Think about the miles (or kilometers) of fiber, alone, that would be required for good high speed networking (then add in the additional cost of extra POPs required, switching hubs, trunk lines for the backbones, etc.), and you'll soon understand that the whole article referenced here is somewhat bogus.
As noted in the article, the US is ranked 11th in terms of last-mile linked for fiber. I'd argue that's actually pretty good when you take into account the geographic area needed to accomplish that degree of penetration when considering the population dispersion...esp. since the geographic area to reach population densities > 10/mi. is significantly larger than what's required in Japan, Korea, etc. - reignbow, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4I remember a story two years back in a norwegian newspaper, highlighting a scandalous lack of broadband rollout in one of the rural counties in eastern Norway. This place, called Stor-Elvdal, has 2000+ square kilometers, under 3000 inhabitants, and only a shocking 30% of their homes had broadband. Local government was called to task on this ridiculous misgovernment, and I'm sure the crisis has been alleviated by now.
Seriously, WTF? - Theisos, on 05/22/2008, -3/+7The World Wide Web was invented at CERN.
- damnyooneek, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5blame it on the companies that are trying to milk the current technology to death before they have to upgrade
- Awspire, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4I bet you wash windshields for a living.
- mswope, on 05/22/2008, -2/+5Not to be a realist or anything, but how is Barack going to "fix" our technology problems? He can, as the web site puts it, "encourage" things to happen. But he has and will have no legislative power to "fix" anything.
- bjornski, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3***** leadership! Look at those profits!
- radiofrequency, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3That's an accurate assessment and fair conclusion, but you have to admit that broadband in the United States - even in big cities - is slower, asymmetrical, throttled for certain uses (filesharing).
It's not a matter of geography alone. - djchester, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Exactly! Why choose when you can have it all. :)
- Dilz, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4Yup. It's pretty obvious if you've ever spent any time outside of the US. America is good at marketing - creating need for products that shouldn't exist like McMansions, Hummers, liposuction, and a bait-and-switch War on Trrr.
We have a single (perhaps) person to thank for this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays - brettmurf, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3What modem are you using to uncap with, and with what ISP?
- Chandon, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3There's nothing "lucky" about having dog-slow internet connectivity, overpriced health care, and a quarter of your tax dollars spent bombing random brown people.
- Awspire, on 05/22/2008, -2/+5http://www.speedtest.net/result/274407723.png
Meh, 30 bucks a month with FIOS in NJ. I'm satisfied at the moment. What do I currently need 100mbps for? Is there some special content floating around that I'm unaware of? Youtube is just starting to dribble out highdef. I'll start bitching about my speed to my ISP when theres something worthy requiring an increase. I'm sure they'll accommodate, since its more business on their end. However, if you want faster speeds to transfer your nifty torrents, then prepare for a speed freeze. - spaceddaisy, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3That'd be true if they actually were cold and dark places....
Okay so winters can be a little bit harsh, but trust me our heating systems have been fine for a long time, I can be warm in the light AND use fast internet, all at the same time :) - MasterThief117, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3For such a relativly large and powerful country, our Internet is ***** sucky.
It is not the governments fault really, but more the ISP's such as Comcast (Concast) and Verizon and such.
Verizon is bragging how they released super high-speed FIOS, when in reality, it is as slow as *****.
My old friend who now lives in Spain gets a 100mbit connection for the same I pay for my 5mbit Verizon connection. It is ***** retarded. - thcobbs, on 05/22/2008, -2/+4I may not be able to point out Sweden....
But I can easily point out an *****. - deadlyfluvirus, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2That is blasphemy you speak of, in Canada, everything is better!
- mswope, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3Oh, and thanks to a post further down, I now know that the FCC defines "broadband" as 200kb/s.
- TexMexMatt, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3So the president of USA can invade another country but not fix broadband?
- Lazydriver, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Try $50 a month and only getting 10Mbps down and 1mbps up... You're lucky, but then again, you've got FIOS. Oh: and it's really $60 if you don't have cable...
Coxsucker Communications:
We're ***** when it comes to torrents of ANY kind, legit or not, and we'll sell you out to the MAFIAA, but at least we're reliable!!!
(A good summary. Cox IS reliable, at least compared to this shoddy Sprint/Embarq DSL I'm using, rarely get disconnects with Coxsuckers, but with Embarq, it's common, like, 3-6 a day..) -
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