What would you do to improve the service and reach of the Internet in America?
Personally, I would start doing more with QOS for time sensitive data types and work harder with telecom companies and other NGOs to get broadband rolled out even to rural areas. We can extend the reach of the Internet to 99% of Americans, but it will take some cajoling just like it did when we extended the infrastructure for electricity and telephone.
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I agree as long as the telecoms aren't the ones that determine what data types qualify for QOS. Some oversight by a reasonable technology comittee would be required.
I think the biggest factor in our falling behind (did we ever lead?) in Internet penetration is just the massive size of our country. How do we compare to countries approaching our size? I can see smaller european countries beating us simply because when you look at the total cost of upgrading the infrastructure in that country, it's far less than upgrading the entire infrastructure in our own. There's also less companies involved in the process of upgrading a european country's infrastructure. Here in the US, there are more players guarding their bottom lines that perhaps aren't that eager to spend millions upgrading their infrastructure.
...but when we extended the electric and phone grids, there were companies invested in guarding their bottom line and we were still able to do it. When we extended our phone and electric grids, the size of the country was not an issue, either.
As long as we allow the broadband providers to ignore huge swaths of rural Americans, we will continue to lag in broadband penetration, which will eventually have a negative impact on our rate of innovation when compared to other countries.
As long as we allow the broadband providers to ignore huge swaths of rural Americans, we will continue to lag in broadband penetration, which will eventually have a negative impact on our rate of innovation when compared to other countries.
This is a tricky question. The internet infrastructure really needs to be upgraded and updated. The follow up question is what organisation is best to deal with this problem? The goverment can provide resources but tends to attach conditions that complicate and politicize government involvement (look at China and Myanmar for how government views resources). Private industry may be more efficient but tends to pricing that makes access expensive.
The challenge would be to get funding that would allow the infrastructure to be updated and upgraded at a reasonable cost to the public. My hopes are that the resulting system would be apolitical and very democratic in providing access to anyone who needs access and not a system that governments can use against their own people.
The challenge would be to get funding that would allow the infrastructure to be updated and upgraded at a reasonable cost to the public. My hopes are that the resulting system would be apolitical and very democratic in providing access to anyone who needs access and not a system that governments can use against their own people.
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