5 ms·

Meantime, we suck... Thanks to BigTelcos

by TweedHeads 17y ago

alexgartrell 17y ago
Well let's not just blame them for this. Also blame them for the disgusting state of our cell phones!
- sachinag 17y ago
  Again, that's the government's fault for not setting communication protocol standards. Free markets != absence of regulation w/r/t public airwaves. Of course, it could be worse. We (the U.S.) could be Canada.
  - billswift 17y ago
    Setting standards too early can be worse. I remember reading that some countries set an analog HDTV standard in the 90s and ended up changing over again to digital at great public expense. Also France's Minitel fiasco in the 80s and 90s.
  - wmf 17y ago
    Even if the US had mandated GSM I think we'd still have the same locked, crippled phones and such from the carriers.
dkasper 17y ago
To be fair, also blame the fact that the area of the US is 25x that of Japan (10x if you count just the lower 48).
- xenophanes 17y ago
  According to your figures, alaska + hawaii is 15x the size of japan, and thus 1.5x the size of the lower 48 states. that's wrong.
  - jibiki 17y ago
    (Hawaii: 28,311 km²) Alaska: 1,717,854 km² Other 48 states: 8,080,464.25 km² Japan: 377,873 km² Now we calculate: (28,311+1,717,854+8,080,464.25)/377,873 = 26.0051108 8,080,464.25 / 377,873 = 21.3840741 So, the whole US is 25x, but "contiguous 48", as wikipedia calls them, are only 20x.
    - dkasper 17y ago
      whoops good call, I knew that didn't seem right. I was looking at square miles for the contiguous 48 and square kilometers for Japan.
just_the_tip 17y ago
I think it has to do more with policy than it does with the telcos. Japan, Korea, and Sweden are outliers which have had massive funding (direct and indirect) from the governments to build up their broadband infrastructures. The hands-off, let the market decide, strategy of the previous Republican administration has led to the largest commercial fiber deployment in the world (FiOS), but it isn't as far-reaching or speedy as the government-assisted rollouts. When you look at penetration rates and bandwidth capacities of different nations, the US is in the middle of the pack.
- billswift 17y ago
  Don't forget that local area monopolies on cable haven't helped any either.
strider24 17y ago
We = ?
- coderdude 17y ago
  The United States, naturally.

Meantime, we suck... Thanks to BigTelcos

alexgartrell 17y ago

Well let's not just blame them for this. Also blame them for the disgusting state of our cell phones!

sachinag 17y ago
Again, that's the government's fault for not setting communication protocol standards. Free markets != absence of regulation w/r/t public airwaves. Of course, it could be worse. We (the U.S.) could be Canada.
- billswift 17y ago
  Setting standards too early can be worse. I remember reading that some countries set an analog HDTV standard in the 90s and ended up changing over again to digital at great public expense. Also France's Minitel fiasco in the 80s and 90s.
- wmf 17y ago
  Even if the US had mandated GSM I think we'd still have the same locked, crippled phones and such from the carriers.

dkasper 17y ago

To be fair, also blame the fact that the area of the US is 25x that of Japan (10x if you count just the lower 48).

xenophanes 17y ago
According to your figures, alaska + hawaii is 15x the size of japan, and thus 1.5x the size of the lower 48 states. that's wrong.
- jibiki 17y ago
  (Hawaii: 28,311 km²) Alaska: 1,717,854 km² Other 48 states: 8,080,464.25 km² Japan: 377,873 km² Now we calculate: (28,311+1,717,854+8,080,464.25)/377,873 = 26.0051108 8,080,464.25 / 377,873 = 21.3840741 So, the whole US is 25x, but "contiguous 48", as wikipedia calls them, are only 20x.
  - dkasper 17y ago
    whoops good call, I knew that didn't seem right. I was looking at square miles for the contiguous 48 and square kilometers for Japan.

just_the_tip 17y ago

I think it has to do more with policy than it does with the telcos. Japan, Korea, and Sweden are outliers which have had massive funding (direct and indirect) from the governments to build up their broadband infrastructures. The hands-off, let the market decide, strategy of the previous Republican administration has led to the largest commercial fiber deployment in the world (FiOS), but it isn't as far-reaching or speedy as the government-assisted rollouts. When you look at penetration rates and bandwidth capacities of different nations, the US is in the middle of the pack.

billswift 17y ago
Don't forget that local area monopolies on cable haven't helped any either.

strider24 17y ago

We = ?

coderdude 17y ago
The United States, naturally.