US Faces "Sputnik Moment" in Broadband

According to Strategy Analytics, the US has not come close to meeting the goal?enunciated by President George Bush in 2004?of ?universal and affordable access by 2007.? In fact, in the so-called ?metrics that matter,? including penetration, availability, speed and affordability, the US has been overtaken by other developed nations.

In the mid-nineties, the majority of Internet connections in the United States were at 28kbps; today, typical speeds advertised by US Cable and DSL providers are in the 3Mbps~11Mbps range. This still pales in comparison to what the typical Japanese or South Korean consumer receives, where 100 Mbps service is commonplace, and average data rates are on the order of 50Mbps.