Broadband

The Center for an Urban Future has put out a report that chronicles the rise of the Big Apple as the #2 startup hub in the US. However they also describe challenges for growth with the state of their broadband connectivity being "the second most frequently cited threat to New York’s future growth in the tech sector" , “It’s like the elephant in the room is that bandwidth here sucks”

Yup the internet is getting slower according to Akamai. Some nuggets in the data. The fastest city in the US may be Boston, but New Jersey comes in with the largest # of "fastest cities" in the US. Slovakia has taken South Korea's crown as the fastest and IPv6 is growing. Asia leads in contributing "fastest cities" to the list.

(Article originally posted April 23rd, 2012)

"The Senate is investigating video competition during a hearing on Tuesday and public interest groups are using it as an opportunity to ask tough questions on broadband caps. Such caps, which are in place on over half of the wireline broadband connections in this country, are justified by the idea that they prevent folks from overusing shared broadband networks. However, most outsiders view such caps as a way for broadband providers to protect their existing pay TV products." (Click External Link for full article)

"China last year investigated government-owned China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., which reportedly control two-thirds of broadband Internet access in China, over monopoly claims and complaints over high prices."

Although no one will say anything about the findings or whether or not punishments have been handed out, both companies promised to reduce broadband costs up to 35% and increase speeds over the next five years, and are being mandated by the Chinese government to drastically increase broadband expansion into rural and low-income areas.