World’s Fastest Broadband at $20 Per Home – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com
This took a few days to filter into my aggregator, but it offers a great explanation of why Internet speeds are slow here in the Sates (emphasis mine):
Competition, or the lack of it, goes a long way to explaining why the fees are higher in the United States. There is less competition in the United States than in many other countries. Broadband already has the highest profit margins of any product cable companies offer. Like any profit-maximizing business would do, they set prices in relation to other providers and market demand rather than based on costs.
Sure there are other factors (namely space–we’re a huge country), yet they become somewhat less convincing when you look at broadband access in medium and large cities. Considering that we invented the Internet, it’s surprising that people don’t complain a bit more.
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