Comments on: Lessons From Japan

By: Brian G

Brian G — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:11:47 +0000

There is an article in the October Federal Computer Week describing one small town’s efforts at municipal broadband. From the article, it sounds like the rural scale muni wi-fi is working pretty well.

http://www.fcw.com/print/13_35/features/150310-1.html?topic=state_and_local

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:27:57 +0000

Brian,

That’s one reason I mentioned the “rural broadband crisis” article in the last link. Given the figures there, do you really think the slow speeds are due to extensive efforts to hook up rural areas?

By: Brian G

Brian G — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:24:03 +0000

One contextual issue that is necessary for comparisons between the U.S. and Japan is population density. The continental U.S. alone is roughly 20x larger than central Japan. When you’re estimating returns on policy impacts you do have to factor in small details such as this.

By: Maryland Conservatarian

Maryland Conservatarian — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:58:47 +0000

“…when the Federal Communications Commission and a federal court ruled that major companies do not have to share phone or fiber lines with competitors. The Bush administration did not appeal the court ruling.”

not being a phone line law geek – what is the Post talking about here? If they are referring to “FCC v US Telecom” – well, that was a pretty good smackdown by the DC Court of Appeals of the FCC. This being 2004, the only reason the Bush administration would have appealed that losing case was to keep the Dems from throwing the potential higher phone cost at them during the election.

And if they’re also talking about access to the cable companies, well that did go the Supreme Court where my two favs were on different sides. With Justice Thomas’s usual eloquence and despite Justice Scalia’s dissent, the SC said no. (National Cable v. Brand X)