we're talking about is the Republican administration reducing competition ... Why Japan Is Eating America's Lunch On Broadband

Why Japan Is Eating America's Lunch On Broadband | Posted August 31, 2007 | 02:34 AM (EST)
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... We know how to fix most of them and people who keep saying, "well, that's complicated" are either stupid (unlikely), are benefiting from the status quo or are imagining the migraine of trying to fight entrenched interests.

Broadband access is exactly the same. The U.S. is getting its lunch eaten. As SaveTheInternet points out, they get access that is often 30x faster than the U.S. As a result they are experiencing innovation -- and enjoying applications that Americans simply don't have access to. As this Washington Post story points out:

The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure.

Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine -- which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance -- and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.

Oh, and all that speed -- costs less too.

Now, 10 years ago Japan had slower internet than the U.S. So they looked to the U.S. to see how to do it -- and they saw that the U.S. had open access laws (where in the old days, companies could buy access to the lines at wholesale rates -- which is why there was an ISP on every corner in the 90s) and decided they were key.
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If this quaint idea of "competition" seems familiar, that's because America invented "open access" policies in the first place. And open access worked for decades to bring lower prices and more choices in long-distance phone service and dial-up Internet access.

The Japanese first adopted open access because they were worried about falling behind us. But under pressure from our own phone and cable monopolists, the Bush administration abandoned open access -- and the fundamental protections for Net Neutrality along with it.

Now they're standing idly by as America drops further and further behind the rest of the world in every measure of broadband progress.

Now here's the thing. What we're talking about is the Republican administration reducing competition. In a competitive market this wouldn't have happened. When you're dealing with a natural monopoly (and phone and cable lines are natural monopolies because driving more than one each to each home doesn't make sense) you have to legislate the market in such a way as to make sure competition exists. The free market can't do its thing if there isn't a market -- and in most of the U.S. there isn't a market. You have at best two possible suppliers. Often one. And in many areas -- if you want "high" speed -- none. ...