Holy Heisenberg! Scientific American, the magazine better known for writing about dark holes and gene splicing, has editorialized earlier this month on the state of US broadband. While SA has in recent years taken on more topical subject matter, there opinionating on broadband was a bit of a surprise to this long-time reader.
Referring to a study from Harvard’s Berkman Center—I believe it’s the “Next-Generation Connectivity” report, which we’ve written about—and no doubt informed by pretty impressive advisers (over 140 Nobel laureates have written for SA), the editors point out the sorry state of US broadband.
They state the stunningly obvious fact that broadband isn’t a competitive market in the US. The always conscientious SA references all the usual bullet-points, including the U-turn made by the FCC back in 2002, in which broadband was reclassified as an information service and broadband transmission and content were unified into an exotic new telecom particle.
And they remind the American technology community that over in Europe and Japan, broadband infrastructure is shared by multiple providers who compete to provide customers with services. Quelle difference!
This broadband call-to-arms ends with a plea to Chairman Genachowski to reconsider third-party competition and presumably wholesale access to cable and fiber.
Read the whole article.
Related articles
- Why Broadband Service in the U.S. Is So Awful (scientificamerican.com)
- National Broadband Plan Has Goal to Study Harder (technoverseblog.com)
- Scientific American appalled at US broadband, demands line-sharing (arstechnica.com)
- Next Generation Connectivity (cyber.law.harvard.edu)
