U.S. Gets Points For Telecom Policy

Turns out all the criticism of U.S. broadband policy (Obama mentioned in in a recent speech) may not be warranted.  According to the New York Times, "European researchers say that the Internet infrastructure of the United States is one of the world’s best and getting better."

How does the U.S. stay ahead despite somewhat lower average connection speeds? Sayeth one of the researchers to the NYT:

[Soumitra Dutta, a professor of information systems at Insead] pointed to France as a country that was a technology leader in terms of network services that had trailed in the study, ranked at 21. “It’s not because France is lacking in technology,” Professor Dutta said. “If you look at other kinds of regulatory issues and labor conditions, you find a rigid situation that prohibits companies from making the most effective use of technology.”

In other words, regulation matters, and the less rigid regs found in the U.S. mean we’re able to take better advantage of the network we have. And then there’s always the fact that our lower population density, as well as sheer size, makes achieving the same sort of service as in, say, Japan, not terribly feasible.  Comparing telecom services in the U.S. to in tiny countries just doesn’t make any sense. You’d be better off comparing Japan to New York City or L.A. rather than to the U.S. as a whole.