fact and fiction in broadband pricing worldwide
The CoolTech Club met last night, and I was shocked by the claim that the U.S. economy would grow substantially if government policy would promote broadband better in this country. We had a heated discussion, in which I was asked to back up my claims. Today I wrote this message to the Club.
I enjoyed last night's meeting. Thanks for the very interesting discussion.
You asked me to back up my claims. Here is an article with a pointer to a study.
I'll reiterate my point: HDTV transmission isn't something most people care about. (They'll tell you they care about it, but they don't really. What they do care about is digital transmission, to get rid of the ghosting and noise.)
As a side note, when I say "people don't care", I am speaking of the vast majority of people. I am not speaking about *you*. You are not representative of the demographic.
The point that people need higher bandwidth because they want to stream higher quality programming is simply FALSE.
And to all of you but the 3 people who raised their hands, I respectfully suggest that you actually watch a program streamed from ABC.com before you criticize the quality of broadband networking in this country.
As to the cost of DSL, there was a lot of misinformation last night. It was mentioned that DSL in Korea and Japan costs $1/mo. Maybe I misunderstood.
In fact, the U.S. has the second least expensive DSL offerings in the world according the this report. It's true that we pay more per Mbps, but as I have indicated, it doesn't really matter, as the vast majority of people don't know what they would do with the extra bandwidth and don't care. For those who care, you can pay for higher speeds.
The original point of the discussion was whether the U.S. economy would grow noticeably if government policy were to better promote broadband. Clearly it's not the case. We already have the cheapest broadband, and that broadband performs totally adequately for most people.
The 47% who do not have broadband either do not want it or can't afford it. At the risk of being politically incorrect, I'll point out that, if they can't afford $15/mo. broadband, it's unlikely the U.S. economy is suffering because *they* don't have it.
-- Tim
I enjoyed last night's meeting. Thanks for the very interesting discussion.
You asked me to back up my claims. Here is an article with a pointer to a study.
- Nearly half of the 24 million households with HDTVs don't actually watch high-definition programs because they lack an HDTV feed from either cable or satellite
- 25% of those surveyed didn't even realize they were watching non-HDTV transmissions
I'll reiterate my point: HDTV transmission isn't something most people care about. (They'll tell you they care about it, but they don't really. What they do care about is digital transmission, to get rid of the ghosting and noise.)
As a side note, when I say "people don't care", I am speaking of the vast majority of people. I am not speaking about *you*. You are not representative of the demographic.
The point that people need higher bandwidth because they want to stream higher quality programming is simply FALSE.
And to all of you but the 3 people who raised their hands, I respectfully suggest that you actually watch a program streamed from ABC.com before you criticize the quality of broadband networking in this country.
As to the cost of DSL, there was a lot of misinformation last night. It was mentioned that DSL in Korea and Japan costs $1/mo. Maybe I misunderstood.
In fact, the U.S. has the second least expensive DSL offerings in the world according the this report. It's true that we pay more per Mbps, but as I have indicated, it doesn't really matter, as the vast majority of people don't know what they would do with the extra bandwidth and don't care. For those who care, you can pay for higher speeds.
The original point of the discussion was whether the U.S. economy would grow noticeably if government policy were to better promote broadband. Clearly it's not the case. We already have the cheapest broadband, and that broadband performs totally adequately for most people.
The 47% who do not have broadband either do not want it or can't afford it. At the risk of being politically incorrect, I'll point out that, if they can't afford $15/mo. broadband, it's unlikely the U.S. economy is suffering because *they* don't have it.
-- Tim
posted by Tim at 10:21 AM
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