The Internet isn’t Dead and Boring in Japan
I just had an interesting juxtaposition of two good articles to read. One tells why the other one is wrong, providing the FCC and Congress get our Telecomm Reform right this time, and the “market forces” telecomm sock puppet Congresspeople who take Telecomm Money get voted out of office.
The first one is “The Internet is Dead and Boring” by Mark Cuban. It’s an interesting read and postulates that now that the Internet is a stable platform it’s become “Just like wheels, printing presses, cars, TV, radio, electricity, water…..” and that since we, the people, won’t get better throughput in the near future, it will remain as it is, and most of the innovation has taken place, and will slow to a crawl over the next few years. He’s right on one condition– that Congress and the FCC screw things up again and don’t give us meaningful Local Loop Unbundling Regulations and Net Neutrality. But if they do, we could someday catch up with Japan, which is already inventing the NEXT Internet– one that isn’t Dead and Boring.
That’s the subject of the second article, and it appears in the Washington Post, which means Telecomm issues are finally going somewhat mainstream, though I doubt CNN or Fox News/Murdoch Papers will be reporting this since they don’t want John Q. Citizen to kill their goose laying golden eggs. The article is entitled “Japan’s Warp Speed Ride to Internet Future” which talks about Local Loop Unbundling and wholesale requirements in Japan’s Telecomm regulations that encourage Broadband Buildout and Intense Competition. “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 . . . 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.”
If Congress and the FCC don’t GET IT this time around, then the US will be a sleepy economic has been backwater in less than ten years . . . if we aren’t already.
Technorati Tags: US Telecomm Policy Reform, Japan Broadband, The Internet isn’t Dead and Boring in Japan, FCC, Congress
