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High prices, puny speeds the rule. Not good

A proposal from non-profit firm EDUCAUSE suggested a way to improve broadband speed and availability in the US, to better match what other developed nations have to offer.

EDUCAUSE published a white paper called 'A Blueprint for Big Broadband' that will have the big US telecoms screaming bloody murder. Like Kevin Bacon trying to stop the onrushing crowd in Animal House, we're continually told "All is well" when it comes to broadband in the US.

The Google Public Policy blog pointed out the key piece of the EDUCAUSE proposal:

“[T]his paper proposes the creation of a new federal Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) that, together with matching funds from the states and the private and/or public sector, should be used to build open, big broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps (scalable upwards to 1 Gbps) to every home and business by 2012. U.S. state governors and foreign heads of state have found the resources to subsidize broadband deployment; the U.S. federal government should as well.”

Broadband speed, pricing, and availability in the United States is an embarrassment at best. When compared to Japan pumping 93Mbit to residences, the US average per OECD figures of less than 9Mbit stands out as a ringing indictment of how the private sector has completely failed to provide the best broadband service they can.

The US market for broadband exists, make no mistake about that. OECD said 66.2 million subscribers get broadband in the US, representing 30 percent of the OECD connections.

But broadband providers price access like a Kobe ribeye (I pay $50/month for example) and deliver day-old cube steak (that gets me 3Mbit down/384k up). Nothing short of the EDUCAUSE proposal will shake up the status quo, though we admit to some hesitance at giving Washington more money to play with and potentially use inefficiently.