The Fine Print

[Gregg]

That's the title of a new book by David Cay Johnson. He was interviewed on Fresh Air (http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/)(NPR) last night. Maybe I've been living in a cave, but he gave some statistics that really surprised me. Relating to communication, internet access, entertainment, etc. he claims....

The US is 29th in the world in average internet speed. Among the other countries ahead of us are Lithuania, Ukraine and Moldavia.

Per bit of information moved on the internet we pay 38 times what the Japanese pay.

The 'triple play package' of internet, land line phone and cable typically costs $160/month in the US. That is exactly what we pay. In France the same package typically costs $38/month. Additionally the French get a much broader range of international television stations, internet speeds 10 times faster downloading and 20 times faster uploading and instead of two country calling they get world wide calling to 70 countries.

He goes on to talk about Lafayette, LA. It seems 100 years ago they built their own municipal electric system and have now done the same thing with internet. It is apparently so fast and works so well that a lot of the work done on Pixar animated movies is done there rather than in California. Partially because of this standard AT&T, Verizon, etc. have pushed for legislation to ban municipal systems because it interferes with their business model. I bet it does. Long story short, we are paying way too much and getting really crappy service.

With all that coming around I'm curious how Google's fiber optic plan for Kansas City (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/google-unveils-superfast-internet-in-kansas-city-mo/)will work out. It's still expensive, but at least a lot faster.

[oldhat]

I wasn't familiar with the exact numbers, but none of this surprises me. The state of broadband in this country is a national disgrace, and good example of what happens when you allow corporations to run a public utility with minimal oversight.

The the infrastructure of the Internet should be maintained by the government, just like the interstate highway system. It's just as important to our economic well-being. It's a public good, like roads, water, fire and police protection, and sanitary services.

[SteveinMN]

I wasn't familiar with the exact numbers, but none of this surprises me. The state of broadband in this country is a national disgrace, and good example of what happens when you allow corporations to run a public utility with minimal oversight.

The the infrastructure of the Internet should be maintained by the government, just like the interstate highway system. It's just as important to our economic well-being. It's a public good, like roads, water, fire and police protection, and sanitary services.
I can just hear the arguments against government maintenance of the Internet -- censorship, not the business of government,... But you are right. Telecommunication in the U.S. in general has been a disaster. Public bandwidth for radio and TV and phone has been lost to what are essentially private easements, and the FCC's decision to "let the market decide" stuck us with analog TV for decades and, now, with four largely-incompatible cellular phone networks. What a tremendous waste of capacity and consumer dollars. The perfection of the free market, indeed.

[catherine]

To old hat's point, my DS, who loves to dream up inventions and is a law school student with eye towards politics has always said that fee internet should come with your local taxes. I noticed that they've done that in VT. If you want internet, just drive anywhere within the Manchester, VT town limits and you have free wifi.

[Dhiana]

I LOVE my Japanese internet & cable!! In all the years we've been here the only time it went down was during a tornado a couple of months ago and sometimes the cable picture pixilates during a typhoon.*

My mobile phone company totally rocks also! Amazing service from AU.

Oldhat: I'm not sure how much of the US highway system is still maintained by the us gov't:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bankrupt-united-states-sells-its-highway-system-287066.html

*Was not here for the big Tohoku earthquake/tsunami so I don't know how much that interrupted things.

[ToomuchStuff]

Thanks for the link, I will have to listen to it tomorrow. I do remember reading about the city you mentioned, LONG ago, and at least one lawsuit that had been filed against them (think another was pending). Never heard anymore about it (figured the plaintiffs wanted to keep it quiet)
I wish I could remember the name of it (heck I shouldn't be awake now); I think I found it, and at least one of the OLD articles that brings up how they (the communications companies) were supposed to have fiber run to all the houses, by the year 2000:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_002683.html
Our internet service would be so much different.

As for Google fiber, it already has problems. But I can't publicly post what I know about that. Fell asleep typing this last night.

[Rogar]

I probably not only live in a cave but eat brontosaurus burger. I am totally happy with my free broadcast TV. I subscribe to the lowest speed DSL for internet and use a land line supplemented by a Tracfone. Total cost is around $80/month. Other than movie or TV streaming, which is no big deal to me, I'm not sure what a faster internet speed would get me.

That said, it would indeed be nice if we had the cost and access to the same connectivity standards of the other developed nations, but until I finish my brontosaurus burger I also wonder if people are not a little over obsessed with their electronic devices.

[Rogar]

I might add a link to a recent article about the huge amount of power required to supply the internet and various storage devices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?_r=0

"Worldwide, the digital warehouses use about 30 billion watts of electricity, roughly equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants, according to estimates industry experts compiled for The Times. Data centers in the United States account for one-quarter to one-third of that load, the estimates show."

“It’s staggering for most people, even people in the industry, to understand the numbers, the sheer size of these systems,” said Peter Gross, who helped design hundreds of data centers. “A single data center can take more power than a medium-size town.”

[Gardenarian]

Wow, this is all new information to me! I assumed the U.S. was number one in this, at least. And the power use statistics are incredible!