While US Broadband Penetration Stagnates, Other Countries Leap Ahead:

I haven't had time to update my blog very much recently; but rest assured there's a lot going on behind the scenes. Look for some interesting new Community Wireless Networking resources in April...

Meanwhile, a few news items caught my eye concerning broadband service provision around the globe. For example, Korea just announced that its main provider is providing 100MB/s symmetrical coverage to homes:

Korea's largest communications firm prepares to launch FTTH at 100 Mb/s symmetrical next month Reaction of a Korean equipment manufacturer: "As it took initiative in broadband Internet service, Korea will be able to move ahead of other countries in the next-generation network equipment market. We anticipate that commercial production of network equipment and government strategy for boosting FTTH service will get on track in the near future."

Korea is far ahead of the US in terms of broadband service penetration -- a much larger percentage of Koreans have access to these services than US residents. Korea also supports public initiatives to deploy broadband -- could there be a link? Of course, most anti-municipal groups claim that the massive difference in broadband service penetration percentages is due to Korea being a small, relatively urban country. It is, according to the rhetoric, much easier to connect a higher percentage of Koreans than to connect US residents because you need to connect a much smaller area. Which, of course, explains why Japan, Korea, and many other small countries have much better (and cheaper) services than we do in the US.

And thus the next news item that caught my attention... CANADA!

Canada has pulled well ahead of the US -- and it both far more rural and much larger. How then does it manage to be doing so much better with it's own broadband services? Maybe it has something to do with publicly supported initiatives like this one for $44.6million (Canadian):

The funding will facilitate the deployment of broadband access to over 100,000 residential homes and more than 24,000 sites including businesses, schools, community access sites, health care centres and business parks as well as all 15 First Nations communities in New Brunswick... The project involves the installation of broadband equipment and upgrades in 336 existing wire centres at strategic locations in the Province to extend coverage to 327 communities in rural New Brunswick. The project is being rolled out in three phases. The first phase began in 2003 and the final phase will be completed in 2006... Federal funds will come from the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund (CSIF), through which the Government of Canada collaborates with provincial, territorial and municipal governments, as well as the private sector, to meet strategic infrastructure needs throughout the country.

And finally, back stateside, West Virginia is poised to pass the Electronic Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Act -- and Verizon is furious -- calling the whole thing "appalling" because it "would give county and municipal governments authority to provide cable, telecommunications, wireless and broadband Internet network services and similar services. It would also give them authority to acquire or build technology infrastructure and issue bonds to pay for it."

As the Charleston Daily Mail reported, John Unger, the Chairman of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (where the bill was introduced), was right on the money when he said, "The special interest groups think they ought to see the legislation before the legislators see it," he said. "That's where everybody's got it backwards around here. They've got it backwards, because they think that the special interest group ought to draft the legislation and then show it to the Legislature, and that's not the way it should be."

So there you have it -- the continuing global fight between those who think broadband service should be provided by whoever can do it cheapest, fastest, and best, on the one hand; and those who feel entitled to be the only option consumers have available, on the other.