U.S. Falling Behind in Internet Access

This week, Information Week explores an important issue: while high-speed Internet access is growing in the U.S. , we're not keeping up with the rapid pace of Internet growth around the world.

Numerous studies show that the U.S. has fallen behind other industrialized nations in Europe and Asia when it comes to the rate of growth for high-speed access. The OECD ranks the U.S. 12th in the world in adoption rates--down from 4th in 2001. A study by the British firm Point Topic showed the U.S. at 19th in individual access and 20th in household access.

John Horrigan, of PEW's Internet and American Life Project, said that connectivity to high-speed networks is only part of the problem.

"Another element that we don't have data on is the fact that there's not good data in the U.S. on connection speed. Yes, people are adopting broadband at a good clip in the U.S., but we don't know how fast their connections are. The FCC has no good data on network speed, and that's not a question that you can reliably get by doing a telephone survey."

In Japan and Korea, for instance, upload and download speeds are frequently over 100 Mbps, much faster than most U.S. networks. The U.S. definition for "high speed" is only a small fraction of that figure.

The bottom line is that the United States currently has a strong and growing broadband infrastructure and is still a powerful innovator and test bed for advanced research and development in this area. But the U.S. isn't even close to being the leader in widespread broadband availability and usage and, in fact, may be dropping further behind the "first tier" of broadband-rich countries in Northern Europe and Asia.

A national Internet strategy would be an acknowledgement of the importance of high-speed access to the economy and modern life. As Information Week points out, high-speed Internet

...opens markets and possibilities to people who may be geographically distant from traditional centers of commerce - people who could be doing valuable, productive, high-skilled work, or bringing new products to a global market - if they had the capacity to do so. Many nations have recognized that widespread broadband access is a critical strategic asset, pumping billions of dollars into their economies and enabling entirely new kinds of business models and economic opportunities.

Several state governments are embarking on ambitious plans to improve their high-speed networks, including Vermont and Kentucky. These efforts would only be strengthened by a federal commitment to expanding Internet access.

Information Week