A recent article in Digital Divide Network quotes a report that was released by by Free Press, the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union:

According to Broadband Reality Check II, a few cable and DSL providers account for 98 percent of the residential broadband market. Over 40 percent of U.S. ZIP codes have one or fewer DSL or cable modem providers providing service. In most cases, these are limited to services offered by just one or the other of the nation’s largest phone and cable companies, all of which have stated their steadfast opposition to preserving an even playing field on the Internet.

“Our markets lack the competition to bring lower prices, higher speeds, and universal access. Our policies lack the imagination and potency to create real change,” wrote the report’s author, Derek Turner, research director of Free Press. “Meanwhile, Americans pay more money for less service than a dozen other nations. A third of U.S households are still stuck with dial-up, and another third lack Internet access of any kind. Our broadband problem is becoming a crisis.”

I’ve been telling people for awhile that a third of US surfers still use dialup. That’s not true. One third of US homes use dialup. One third use broadband. One third don’t have internet access. That means that ONE HALF of US SURFERS use dialup. It also means that two thirds of US homes don’t have broadband.

Funny how the spinmeisters can spin things, isn’t it? I didn’t realize I was passing on their misinformation with their peculiar spin on it.

The article goes on to point out the other misinformation that the Telecommunications companies and cable companies have been spewing out while the US gets further and further behind the rest of the world in Broadband deployment. It’s worth a read.

A friend of mine has ancient dialup over even more ancient copper lines. He only has one overpriced and extremely oversubscribed broadband option which, according to a neighbor of his, is very often slower than dialup. Mark runs an online business despite this. He recently complained to me that two of his customers in rural areas in POLAND have 5mbps bidirectional broadband while he sits and spins waiting for things to load. Mark lives exactly 55 miles from New York City in a pretty affluent rural NJ area. His only other option is satellite, since Verizon has told him repeatedly they won’t ever service his area with dsl, even though repeaters now make it possible for them to do so.

I’m lucky to have the option of two cable companies (both of which have bad reps and “packages” which include TV, which I don’t need) and dsl with either verizon, directly through Covad who owns the local hub, or through Earthlink. I know I’m in the minority to have an actual choice, even if three of the five are basically selling the same thing. Earthlink is and will remain net neutral and is partnered with Covad on many hubs. Whether that will make a difference in the future is anyone’s guess, but I’ve chosen the company who had a representative explain net neutrality to the Senate Commerce Committee when it was first presented to them. Mr. Putala is a Net Neutrality supporter, as is his company. I’m voting with my wallet for Net Neutrality.

I’m also telling my web design clients that half of US surfers use dialup. Maybe it’ll make it easier talking them out of their worst excesses.

Technorati Tags: Net Neutrality, Dialup Internet Access, Broadband Deployment, Earthlink, Covad, Verizon, Senate Commerce Committee

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Web News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.