Lag Time

A report from the International Telecommunications Union ranks the US as 16th in the world in broadband access. The sad thing is, that's the good news, the not so good?

The U.S. has the fourth highest level of students who have never used a computer, among these nations, exceeded only by Turkey, Slovakia and Mexico

For being the country that invented both the computer and the internet, that's not great company to be in. Why should we care? I'll let FCC Commissioner Michael Copps answer that one:

The reason is that we do not have a national strategy to get broadband out to our people. I think we're probably the only industrialized country on the face of the earth that lacks a coherent national strategy to build this infrastructure, and it's damaging for all Americans. It's damaging for small businesses who are unable to compete, and most of all, it's damaging for minorities and diversity communities, people who live in the inner cities and people who live in rural America, where the market, I don't think, is just going to automatically take all of this infrastructure.