This is actually an interesting report. I’ve always suspected that the oft-repeated "U.S. is lagging in broadband" wasn’t quite as dire as the proponents suggest, but having said that we still need a more competitive broadband marketplace to ensure that we increase broadband availability nationwide, proliferate services on top of broadband, and lastly, do it at price points that all levels of society can afford.

Actually, allow me to rephrase that, we don’t need a MORE competitive marketplace… we just need to start with a marketplace that has ACTUAL COMPETITION.

By that logic, the report concluded that countries like Turkey and Portugal, which fall behind the United States in the OECD rankings, are actually making better use of what it calls "national endowments." Countries like Denmark and Norway, which top the United States on the OECD charts, are "under performing" considering their demographic and economic realities, and nations such as Japan and Korea hailed as broadband "miracles" are really pretty average, the report said.

Tags: broadband