In broadband penetration, that is. According to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission, 63 percent of U.S. households have broadband, which puts us ninth among the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We're behind South Korea (the top, at 83.8 percent), Sweden, Japan, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, and Australia. But the reach of broadband varies greatly by state. I've taken the FCC data and made it into the long graph at right, which shows the wide variance, from a low of 41 percent in Mississippi up to the high of 73 percent in Alaska, Utah, and New Hampshire. Some of this has to do with income and geography, but government policy also plays a role.
Speaking of which, the state of North Carolina just passed a law at the urging of telecom companies which hamstrings local municipalities from providing competitive broadband to their citizens. In many places, particularly those where there are few private options for broadband, local governments have stepped in and created their own systems. The problem, as Lawrence Lessig explains, is that municipal broadband providers often give good service at reasonable prices, which the telecoms find intolerable. So they do what any good capitalist does. Outcompete them in the market? No. They lobby government to eliminate their competition.
North Carolina Gov. Bev Purdue, in a uncommon display of political courage, criticized the bill but declined to either veto it or sign it, meaning it becomes law, thereby increasing the chances that North Carolina stays near the bottom.
