China is larger and even more rural. They passed us in broadband deployment last year -
China has more than 3 times the population of the US.
Huge areas of China are extremely poor and likely can’t even come close to owning a computer much less have broadband Internet access.
And look at the “leader”, Hong Kong. One of the most densely populated places on earth. Duh...
China has 3 or 4 times the population, so to say they pass us in the “number of broadband lines” is again a new media misconception. Additionally China now owns Hong Kong which initially had almost no infrastructure for broadband, and was built from the ground up with fiber to the premise. Just looking at three or four major China population centers it is easy to see how they could have more broadband lines.
The real issue here is enabling BUSINESS to do business faster and better with high speed connectivity. International business operations should not be built in podunk. Not only does one lack high speed connectivity, but other infrastructure as well - highway access could be restricted, distance from suppliers and raw materials - all those things play into this discussion. High speed Internet access alone does not make or break a business nor does it affect the success of that business.
I own three business’s. One is an Internet Service Provider. Two of the businesses make money the old fashioned way - selling stuff to people. They don’t need any high speed anything! To imply the the US is falling behind because we don’t have 10 megs to each home, or our kids are less educated than those who have fiber to the home is generally stated by those who chose to live in the sticks but expect to have all the same services as those who live in the big city (or any city for that matter).
I believe that if you survey every city with at least 15K population you will find broadband there. Additionally when DOCSIS 3.0 is finalized we will be providing 15 megs to each home on our cable system along with voice services. Very few computers can handle a download at 15 megs today, and probably well into the future.
So the issue really requires an examination of population density, cost vs benefit, plus you have to find out what percentage of the rural population really wants broadband.
Yeah, but that’s not a good comparison either because they have so many more people than us. It stands to reason they would have more broadband lines.
They also have a lot more bicycles than the US does.
“China is larger and even more rural. They passed us in broadband deployment last year - “
BS..Much of China outside the cities is immeasurably poor, They’d be lucky if they’d seen a computer let alone have broadband.
Oh great. More spam to clean up.
/sarc
This article is full of twisted statistics. As I said before the Americans by far own more computers and have more internet access at home and at work than anywhere in the world.