The biggest difference between France (Any European country) and the
US in comparisons, is plums versus watermelons.
The density of people in France is much higher than the density of
our population.
When you get away from the coasts, the density is much less.
This handicaps any company wanting to roll out product.
What I have offered to me is less than what is offered 30 miles down
> the road. But that is because of population density.
Then, why was it so difficult for cities like Lafayette, Louisiana to
get the broadband that they wanted? It's a city, i.e. has population
density. It took several years of lawsuits for Lafayette to finally get
the private broadband providers off their backs, even though the private
companies they contacted to supply broadband initially didn't want to go
into the area at all. Then the same private companies sued Lafayette for
unfair competition when the city decided to develop a public broadband
network. Lafayette won, so far.
Distance and population density are lame excuses. Spain is densely
populated along the coasts, with many miles of not much more than olive
groves and dust in the rest of the country. Phone+ADSL=26 euros/mo --
only 3Mbps, but still cheaper than here. I live 1 mile from the closest
switch but DSL tops of at 3Mbps for 1/3 more than Telefónica, not
including phone. In a small town on an island in Greece [many towns,
many islands], broadband speeds are higher than here--distance is not a
factor, neither is the sea. Initiative is.
The American people can get better service and better prices if they/we
demand the R&D and infrastructure incentives for the providers, just as
it's being done elsewhere. We keep hearing about American technological
superiority, yet current evidence doesn't show it. The gummint has been
listening to the telcos & cablecos instead of the people, at least up until
the FISA vote on 3/14/08.
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