Why is America's Internet So Slow?

Why is America's Internet So Slow?

What do Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Romania. Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Iceland & Denmark all have in common?

They all have faster internet than the good ol' U.S.A. - that's right faster than America's internet despite the fact that the U.S.A. had it first and invented it!

So, why is America's Internet so slow? It is because our Government has allowed a few giant conglomerates to rig the rules, raise prices and kill competition!

What has happened and what most people don't realize is that these big telecommunications companies such as, Comcast and Time Warner who control the wired, and AT&T, along with Verizon who control the wireless, have divided up the markets for themselves in a 'gentleman's agreement' type of arrangement and they have put themselves in a position where there is no competition and no oversight from any regulatory authority, and in this manner they are able to over-charge us for second-class Internet access and Americans are unable to do anything about it.

If that was not bad enough, it may still get even worse, because these same conglomerates want to abolish net neutrality and set tiered prices for bandwidth and if they don't get their way, their projected profit loss would exceed the expense of upgrading the infrastructure... and therefore such upgrades just won't happen (a veiled threat). They figured a way to beat the laws of monopolization and have been gouging customers with inferior technology! Now they want to put prices on bandwidth and allow some big companies to buy more. In the end customers would have less bandwidth and their internet will become even slower than it already is.

Americans are stuck with old fashioned technology and few options. And these big companies threaten us, they lie and say they'll make it possible for you to have faster streaming by allowing companies like Google and Amazon to buy more bandwidth, giving them priority access they'll deliver faster downloads and streaming. That's all a pack of lies and bullshit! The average customer will soon be faced with, out of control priced internet speed packages and will find their internet gets even slower.

“In Hong Kong right now you can get a 500 megabit symmetric connection that’s unimaginably fast from our standpoint for about 25 bucks a month. In Seoul, for $30 you get three choices of different providers of fiber in your apartment. And they come in and install in a day because competition’s so fierce. In New York City there’s only one choice, and it’s 200 bucks a month for a similar service. And you can’t get that kind of fiber connection outside of New York City in many parts of the country.” - Susan Crawford

These companies are out of control and it's time to do something about it!

If you want to find out more, I recommend that you buy this very good and informative book, "Captive Audience" by Susan Crawford

Captive Audience by Susan Crawford

Some further information about Susan Crawford can be found with these links below.

Bio About Susan Crawford:http://rooseveltinstitute.org/people/susan-crawford

Time Magazine: Is Broadband Internet Access a Public Utility?http://ti.me/WWIMhU

Washington Post Blogger Promotes Crawford for FCC Chair http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-susan-crawford-for-fcc-chairman/2013/02/04/809b9a10-6ef5-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story_1.html

Here is an OP-ED by Susan Crawford from last month: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/opinion/how-to-get-high-speed-internet-to-all-americans.html?_r=1&