Internet Speed in America

[erpowers]

Today, I saw two different news reports on the state of internet service in America. In the first report, which was on CNN, it was stated that Japan has an internet speed of about 93,000+ while the United States has a speed of around 10x less then Japan's speed. The second report was mainly a repeat of the first report.

As a result of these two reports I have a question. Does it really matter that much that the internet in the United States has an internet speed that is 10 times less than that of Japan's? What does having an internet speed as fast as Japan's do? In the United States people can watch tv on the internet and download information. What would having a faster speed allow Americans to do that they cannot already do?

I would like to point out that I am not againist the FCC taking efforts to increase internet speeds in America. I just wonder if it is that big of a deal.

[Earth_First]

1. However, Japanese have greater access to the internet than Americans do n/t

[Libertas1776]

2. I never understood this argument made against the US

when these super fast speeds are coming from tiny countries like Japan and Sweden. We are not exactly on the same level in pop size when compared to one of these countries. When Russia gets 93,000+ speed, then i think we should be worried. Of course, i realize that Japan has a pop size of 120 Million, but given their tiny size, i would figure its much easier to implement. I don't know. I'm not an expert. Just my opinion tho.

[RC]

3. You can start with less net congestion because of bigger pipes.

I have a photo web site and it would not take so long to upload 60, 80 or 100 meg worth of pictures. We are talking a half hour sometimes and I have a cable connection.
The problem is building to that speed because it would cut into the profits and bonuses of the ISP.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. If you are a gamer... it translates to lag time

obviously this is not the reason... if you are running a business and are downloading a LARGE file with LOTS of pictures... that is ... time = Money....

That is why higher speeds matter... in the world of business they translate to competitiveness, and why it matters to keep it FREE...essentially.

Oh and by the way in some places of the world, not the US obviously, this is considered part of the Commons and the need for the NATION to compete on a world stage, why access is better and more wide spread.

[GrantDem]

5. Maybe this helps...

A CWA project.

http://www.speedmatters.org/pages/why/

[anigbrowl]

6. There are a lot of things you can do with faster broadband speeds

large distributed databases, for example. Real-time collaboration on data-intensive projects, peak load stability and stuff like that. think of it like a high speed rail network, which can be a lot more efficient for moving goods or people than a single bus or plane. Or consider the stuff you can do, compared to what you could do a decade ago.

[msongs]

7. Internet should be a public utility instead of in the hands of our corporate enemies n whores nt

[erpowers]

9. Would Things Go Faster

Would the increase in internet speeds go faster if the government was in charge of things? How much do you think it would cost for the government to increase internet speeds?

[slampoet]

8. I worked for a website that Would have been You Tube, but the year was 2001

and internet speeds high enough the view the site were only available on college campuses and .....in Japan and several of the Asian Tiger countries.


You also don't seem to realize that we PAY MORE for the band width we get, and that vast areas of this country are not at high enough speeds to watch HULU which results in different ratings for shows and as a result under serves the opinions of those areas.

How would you like it if Only Delaware determined the shows on the internet?

[virgogal]

10. So what's the rush?

[awoke_in_2003]

11. I want my porn fast

:)

[Historic NY]

13. ha..ha....

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[ecstatic]

12. I have 12Mb/s and it's slow as hell... youtube lags

This is a brand new laptop with 3gb of ram so I'm not the problem. It's very frustrating but I refuse to give comcast an additional dime. They're overpriced as it is!