[1st-mile-nm] Ah, those nasty Frenchies. Beating us on broadband. Next it will be how they prepare potatoes

[Steve Ross]

Krugman is right, but the story is really complicated. Until 
late last year, France was committed to ADSL, topping out at 
less than 20 Mbps and typically 12.

Not enough to deliver HDTV.

But Free and Illiad showed the way, and in a matter of 
months France Telecom committed to fiber to the home. Quick 
reaction to a changing economic landscape. remember, 
Verizon's 18-million-household US build alone would cover 
all of France with FTTH easily capable of 200 Mbps (if they 
chose to market it).

We, on the other hand, live in a country that can't figure 
out how to issue passports in a timely manner or rescue 
people from floods, let alone figure out a broadband policy.

BTW, Corning yesterday announced an amazing new fiber -- 
VERY bendable, and much cheaper than others in its class, 
both to buy and to deploy. Verizon stock went wild. The 
technical press is buzzing -- I did hours of reporting on it 
yesterday. The business part of CNN did a little story that 
covered the bases. Fair enough. Corning issued a minimal 
press release to keep from being accused of violating 
insider trading laws.

I didn't see a single newspaper article. Nada. Zip. Yet no 
development in the past year will affect the newspaper 
business more (by expanding the reach of broadband).

Come to think of it, the passport people and newspaper 
management seem to be cut from the same cloth.

Google corning nanostructure to get more info.

Steven S. Ross
Editor-in-Chief
Broadband Properties
steve at broadbandproperties.com
www.bbpmag.com, www.killerapp.com
SKYPE: editorsteve
+1 781-284-8810
+1 646-216-8030 fax
+1 201-456-5933 mobile

Tom Johnson wrote:
> 
> 
> Paul Krugman | The French Connections
> 
> http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072407H.shtml
> "According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation,
>  French broadband connections are, on average, more than three times as
>  fast as ours. Japanese connections are a dozen times faster. Oh, and
> 
>  access is much cheaper in both countries than it is here," writes 
> Paul
>  Krugman of 
> The New York Times.
> 
> 
> July 21, 2007  
> Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans  
> By MIGUEL HELFT and STEPHEN LABATON        
>       If Google succeeds with federal regulators, it could change the 
> way millions of Americans use their cellphones and how they connect to 
> the Internet on their wireless devices.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/technology/21google.html?pagewanted=print
> 
> 
> -- tj
> ==========================================
> J. T. Johnson
> Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
> www.analyticjournalism.com <http://www.analyticjournalism.com>
> 505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
> http://www.jtjohnson.com                 tom at jtjohnson.us 
> <mailto:tom at jtjohnson.us>
> 
> "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
> To change something, build a new model that makes the
> existing model obsolete."
>                                                    -- Buckminster Fuller
> ==========================================
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 1st-mile-nm mailing list
> 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
> http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/1st-mile-nm