FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps – 11/8/06:

The United States is 15th in the world in broadband penetration, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). When the ITU measured a broader “digital opportunity” index (considering price and other factors) we were 21st — right after Estonia. Asian and European customers get home connections of 25 to 100 megabits per second (fast enough to stream high-definition video). Here, we pay almost twice as much for connections that are one-twentieth the speed.

How have we fallen so far behind? Through lack of competition. As the Congressional Research Service puts it, U.S. consumers face a “cable and telephone broadband duopoly.” And that’s more like a best-case scenario: Many households are hostage to a single broadband provider, and nearly one-tenth have no broadband provider at all.

And it’s actually much worse. We don’t even have access to real broadband when you compare our access to the rest of the world…

Asian and European customers get home connections of 25 to 100 megabits per second (fast enough to stream high-definition video). Here, we pay almost twice as much for connections that are one-twentieth the speed.

The FCC still defines broadband as 200 kilobits per second, assumes that if one person in a Zip code area has access to broadband then everyone does and fails to gather any data on pricing.

John wrote about this problem in his PC Magazine column. His theory is that telephony and cable TV based ISPs have strong financial incentives to keep broadband expensive and slow.

Let’s face the simple reality of things: The phone company is in the business of telephony first. That’s why it’s called a phone company. Everyone knows that someday telephony will be free, but what’s the rush? There is plenty of time left to gouge and slam.

And on the other side of the table you have the cable TV folks. They are in the business of delivering TV, not Internet connections. Cable and satellite do offer a lot more programming than any OTA rig does, including HBO and other non-broadcast programming. The entry of cable and satellite providers into Internet access represents a clear conflict of interest.

It’s a conflict of interest because it is apparent to everyone worldwide that TV signals will all be distributed over IP eventually.