Hundreds of Cities have Pledged to High Speed Internet
The US has a huge and complicated internet speed problem. Its broadband infrastructure is woefully behind in speed and price compared to a lot of other countries (We exposed 2 charts, one of them has the avg. Mbps speed and peak in 15 Asian countries in the world, then we add the data for the Americas, compare the whooping 23.6Mbps of South Korea to 11,9Mbps in USA thats a difference of 50% in speed). That's why a lot of people are sort of crowdfunding high speed fiber internet all over America.
Source: Xconomy
102 cities have agreed to cooperate together to bring their residents gigabit-speed internet connections, even if they have to build it themselves. They’re part of the Next Century Cities program, which promises to help cities make this possible. The coalition took shape last October with an inaugural 32 members after the FCC decided that cities can build their own broadband networks despite some states’ efforts to ban or restrict municipal internet services.
Source: Next Century Links
“Since launching Next Century Cities in October, we've seen incredible demand from cities looking to lead the conversation about the crucial role next-generation Internet plays in helping communities thrive,” Deb Socia, executive director for Next Century Cities, said in a statement.
The cities involved will have to jump a lot of hurdles and fight companies with much deeper pockets to make the endgame a reality. Telecom companies already have strong presences in major cities (with no real competition between them; one provider usually dominates a city, county even states) and it’ll continue to stay this way so long as the infrastructure continues to stay in those companies’ hands.
Not only that, but it’ll be physically hard to get all the right materials in place. The US isn’t densely packed, meaning that it’ll take significant investments to bring fiber speeds out to rural areas. (Now is possible with some of the latest breakthrough in fiber optics) Compare that to South Korea, which still holds the status for highest average internet speed in the world.
The country has embraced infrastructure sharing and doesn’t face the same density problem the US has—cables can just snake up high-rises rather than trail miles down country paths.
It may well be a long battle to fight, considering that Google Fiber’s own expansion has been slow, with three cities set up and five planned its five-year existence. At this rate, it might disappear from public attention before it even hits a megacity like New York or Los Angeles.
Municipal and self-started broadband networks can be the future, but who knows how far off this particular future really is?
Source: MotherBoard
