100 megabit nation. When?
Can Americans dream about a day when they get a
100-megabit-per-second broadband connection, delivered over fiber?
Streetcorner signup in Korea
Can Americans dream about a day when they get a 100-megabit-per-second broadband connection, delivered over fiber? FTTH Council, says yes, and is pushing the US government to adopt a 100 Megabit Nation policy. The Council says that we have the technology, and the carriers (and cable providers) have the networks to make it all a reality - with a little pressure from Washington D.C.
The FTTH Council’s recommendation included the goal of extending, through both private and public sector initiatives, affordable next-generation broadband to a majority of Americans by 2010, with universal availability by 2015.
The Council wants Congress and the President to act fast on this - otherwise we will be stuck in the slow lane, of sub-10 megabit per second speeds. Every day we twiddle our thumbs, we lose some of the edge when it comes to developing clever ways to use the bandwidth. My simple argument is that what x86 was to the PC era, bandwidth is to the broadband era. The more bandwidth we have, the more innovative ways we will find to use it, thus creating another cycle of innovation.
I’m almost [but, not quite] old enough to recall when the equation of public and private interests included a segment dedicated to providing for the needs of the American public. But, I only started voting in 1949!
The frustrating part of this Post by Om Malik is the number of comments he received from geeks in another countries - who already are well on the way to access to this level of broadband.
Posted: Tue - April 17, 2007 at 08:43 AM