U.S. 'Falling Way Behind' High Speed Internet

I mentioned this in class.  I heard an interview with law professor, Susan Crawford, author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the Gilded Age, who explains how we got to this point. "The [Federal Communications Commission] in the early 2000s really thought that competition would do the job of regulatory oversight — that that would protect Americans." [You can read the summary or listen to her interview - I recommend the latter.]

The idea was that cable, telephone and wireless companies would battle it out, which would yield low prices for American consumers. "As it turns out, they were wrong and we've come into an era where these markets have consolidated and for most Americans, their only choice for high-speed, high-capacity Internet connection is their local cable monopoly."

In her book, Crawford reminds us that the U.S. had some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access.

The nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market—it also threatens the economic future of the nation.

"Americans aren't quite aware of it," says Crawford, "because we don't look beyond our borders, but we're falling way behind in the pack of developed nations when it comes to high-speed Internet access, capacity and prices."  At issue is whether the new jobs, new innovations, new services of the 21st century will come from the United States or they'll come from Stockholm, Seoul, Beijing, where there are kids already used to and playing in these very high capacity networks.