Posted on 08/29/2007 7:13:58 AM PDT by Aristotelian
TOKYO -- Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it.
Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States -- and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world's fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.
Accelerating broadband speed in this country -- as well as in South Korea and much of Europe -- is pushing open doors to Internet innovation that are likely to remain closed for years to come in much of the United States.
The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure.
Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine -- which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance -- and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“I find it infuriating that our Internet service is inferior to that of Japan and much of Europe.”
It’s the advantage of being small but wealthy. They don’t have to build an internet backbone in a country near this size so they can afford the best. A lot faster to upgrade the whole thing too. We on the other hand still have people on dial up out in rural areas.
But I bet it will still be mostly used to view porn.
Basic physics has a LOT to do with the amount of bandwidth you can push over a given distance with most broadband technologies. The “fix” for this is fiber to the house .... but who is going to pay for that infrastructure?
The article makes these interesting points:
Japan has surged ahead of the United States on the wings of better wire and more aggressive government regulation, industry analysts say.
The copper wire used to hook up Japanese homes is newer and runs in shorter loops to telephone exchanges than in the United States. This is partly a matter of geography and demographics: Japan is relatively small, highly urbanized and densely populated. But better wire is also a legacy of American bombs, which razed much of urban Japan during World War II and led to a wholesale rewiring of the country.
In 2000, the Japanese government seized its advantage in wire. In sharp contrast to the Bush administration over the same time period, regulators here compelled big phone companies to open up wires to upstart Internet providers.
In short order, broadband exploded. At first, it used the same DSL technology that exists in the United States. But because of the better, shorter wire in Japan, DSL service here is much faster. Ten to 20 times as fast, according to Pepper, one of the world’s leading experts on broadband infrastructure.
The speed advantage allows the Japanese to always win at Doom3 online and download porn at a much faster rate than teenagers in the USA.
I find computers to be a necessary evil and I know that the genie cant be stuffed back into the bottle.
But I prefer, in many ways, my pre-computer days from the late 40’s through the 70’s.
c’est la vie.
I bought some stocks in Verizon because they are spending billions to lay down fiberoptic networks throughout the USA.
Since my home has FIOS connection and the need for future speed and increased digital packet sizes that fiberoptics can handle it seemed like a good choice for an investment allocation....albeit a modest one.
when then how come Canada blows the US ut of the water as well with respect to broadband speeds and availability? hey have a much lower pop per square mile than us, yet htey can do it.
I’ll tell you why, telecoms want to spend the least amount of money to make the most $$$. Their customers be damned.
Verizon FiOS
They could do wireless internet for the whole damn country!.......
This is a model whose time has come. With gas prices skyrocketing, traffic jams proliferating, infrastructure crumbling, and office real estate at all-time highs, I can't think of a better time for American employers to start encouraging a work-from-home ethic.
Not in my area.... already checked.
PS: The US leads any country in the world by % of internet users and % of people who own a computer at home.
While I was in Tokyo in 2002 for a two week vacation I noticed cell phones and PDA technology in regular use that didn't appear in the US market for 2-3 years. They are consistently ahead of the curve.
Make the USA the size of Japan and it would be easy.
If DSL were cheaper, you’d bet I’d be on it. Sorry, it’s dial-up for now.
“I bought some stocks in Verizon because they are spending billions to lay down fiberoptic networks throughout the USA.”
Look at GLW....Corning Glass (makes the fiber)
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