Canada and U.S seriously lagging in average broadband speed

This study was just released this week. Canada and the U.S are way behind the top dogs in terms of average broadband speed. To many individuals, this might come as a surprise and should act as a wake up call.

Consider this excerpt:

“In the first three years of the Bush administration, the United States dropped from 4th to 13th place in global rankings of broadband Internet usage. Today, most U.S. homes can access only “basic” broadband, among the slowest, most expensive, and least reliable in the developed world, and the United States has fallen even further behind in mobile-phone-based Internet access. The lag is arguably the result of the current administration’s failure to make a priority of developing these networks. In fact, the United States is the only industrialized state without an explicit national policy for promoting broadband. ” -ForeignAffairs.org

Here in Canada, (as you can see in the chart above), we’re not much better off at all. The West cannot afford to fall behind like this for much longer. Faster broadband leads not only to benefits for us marketers (i.e. a wider variety of information sharing possibilities and multi sensory media usage to get our messages across), but more importantly, towards a more educated and informed society as a whole.

So what’s stopping us? –>Lack of Fibre Optic cable infrastructure.

How did Japan do it in just 5 years? (note that in 2001, Japan was well behind the U.S and Canada). –>The government got the private sector involved, it gave subsidies and grants to telecom start-ups and most importantly, it saw the benefit and potential of ultra high-speed broadband.

So what do you think? Does the Canadian government dedicate enough resources towards broadband? Should our tax money be used? What would our society be like if everyone had fiber-optic ultra high-speed connections? When will we get there? I’m curious to hear your thoughts…

For more information on the e-Japan strategy and the incredible results, be sure to read this article.