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Irene Mia, Senior Economist, Global Competitiveness Network, World Economic Forum
U.S. loses ground in networked readiness, falling six places to seventh position

The World Economic Forum has released its Global Information Technology Report (GITR) for 2006-2007 and ranks Denmark at the top in terms of “network readiness,” naming the country as best able to “leverage the opportunities offered by information and communication technology for development and increased competitiveness.” Sweden, Singapore and Finland follow, while the United States loses ground in networked readiness, falling six places to seventh position.

The GITR cites Denmark’s excellent regulatory environment and clear government leadership and vision as drivers of the country’s impressive levels of Internet and PC, together with a continuous emphasis on education and R&D and a talent for pioneering applications and technologies.

The rest of the Nordic countries, except Iceland which loses some ground from last year, follow Denmark’s upward trend, with Sweden, Finland and Norway moving up on the chart. Nordic countries have consistently featured among the top 10 in the last six years, which the World Economic Forum says is because of a very strong focus on education in the region.

“Nordic countries have shown how an early focus on education, innovation and promotion of ICT penetration and diffusion is a winning strategy for increased networked readiness and competitiveness. Denmark, in particular, has benefited from very effective government e-leadership, reflected in early liberalization of the telecommunications sector, a first-rate regulatory framework and large availability of e-government services,” said Irene Mia, Senior Economist of the Global Competitiveness Network at the World Economic Forum and co-editor of the report.

Singapore moved down one place to third position, maintaining its position near the top of the list for the fifth successive year. Switzerland, up four ranks to fifth place, registers one of the biggest improvements after Sweden and the Netherlands, both six ranks up from last year.

The United States loses its top position and drops six places to seventh, mainly due what the report calls “relative deterioration of the political and regulatory environment.” However, the U.S. maintains its “primacy in innovation, driven by one of the world’s best tertiary education systems and its high degree of cooperation with the industry.” The forum continues by saying the extremely efficient market environment in the U.S. is very conducive to the development and prospering of the ICT sector, in particular, the availability of venture-capital, sophistication of the financial market and the ease to start a business.

The top 25 ranked countries are listed in the chart below, and the full list can be found in this PDF document.

Networked Readiness Index Variation 2006-2007

 

Countries

Score 2006

Rank 2006-2007

Rank 2005-2006

Evolution

Denmark

5.71

1

3


+2

Sweden

5.66

2

8


+6

Singapore

5.6

3

2

 

-1

Finland

5.59

4

5


+1

Switzerland

5.58

5

9


+4

Netherlands

5.54

6

12


+6

United States

5.54

7

1

 

-6

Iceland

5.5

8

4

 

-4

United Kingdom

5.45

9

10


+1

Norway

5.42

10

13


+3

Canada

5.35

11

6

 

-5

Hong Kong SAR

5.35

12

11

 

-1

Taiwan, China

5.28

13

7

 

-6

Japan

5.27

14

16


+2

Australia

5.24

15

15

 

0

Germany

5.22

16

17


+1

Austria

5.17

17

18


+1

Israel

5.14

18

19


+1

Korea, Rep.

5.14

19

14

 

-5

Estonia

5.02

20

23


+3

Ireland

5.01

21

20

 

-1

New Zealand

5.01

22

21

 

-1

France

4.99

23

22

 

-1

The GITR assesses 122 economies worldwide and is produced in cooperation with international business school INSEAD and is sponsored this year by Cisco.

"It’s no longer debatable as to whether or not the global economy will become networked – the vast majority of industries are increasingly adopting networked business processes – and the discussion now focuses not on if but how we get connected to maximize the benefits to business and society," said John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco.


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Size matters
By JarredWalton on 4/5/2007 5:02:02 PM , Rating: 6
One of the things the report obfuscates is the fact that many of the "most ready" countries are extremely small. Denmark is only about 1/3 the land area of New York, or about twice the size of New Jersey. Basically, it's a lot easier to cover that small of an area with acceptable networking service. When I lived in Denmark over a decade ago, cell phones were already FAR better and more prevalent then what we had in the US, for example.

I have to wonder how much the testing accounts for population density as well. There are many large cities in the US where networking access is basically as good as you can expect. Then there are other cities that are still reasonably large but since they cover a vast area you get a few "holes" in internet access. Most of Sweden, Denmark, etc. has the vast majority if the population very close to a major city center in my experience. I'm not so sure access in a place like Hanstholm is going to be any better than trying to get access in Jordan, Montana. The only difference is that there are far more "middle of nowhere" locations in the US than in a smaller country like Denmark.

Note that I'm not saying Denmark is behind, and it's a dejlig little land. I'm just saying it's not at all surprising to see smaller area countries surpassing the US in things like network access.




RE: Size matters
By aurareturn on 4/5/2007 6:48:48 PM , Rating: 3
You're wrong that major cities in the U.S. are wired as good as it can be. First of all, almost every single major city in the U.S. have either cable or DSL. With DSL, some people in those major cities cannot go past 3mbps. With cable, they can get up to 15mb max but with a much higher price.

In Korea, Europe, Japan, or even China, they are getting 100mbs+ symmetrical lines into their HOME. In Japan, you can get a gigabit line into your home for a reasonable cost.

In the U.S., you're lucky to have 3mbps even if you are living in the major city. If you want something like a 100/100 symmetrical line, you'll have to look into OC and be prepared to shell out a few grand a month.

The only part of the U.S. that is wired to its best is where Verizon FiOs is installed. But FiOs is only limited to a very FEW small areas right now.

I am sorry but to think that our major cities can even compare with other countries is a laugh outloud joke.


RE: Size matters
By JarredWalton on 4/5/2007 9:53:04 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure that the speed of the connection is actually a factor in this report. Honestly, while I really like having a 10mpbs cable connection (768kbps up), I rarely come close to maxing it out. Oh, sure, I could run multiple BitTorrent servers with an FiOS connection or something, but I wouldn't consider that even remotely necessary for the majority of the population. I've also lived in quite a few locations that I wouldn't rate as being all that advanced (Provo, UT; Nampa, ID; Olympia, WA) in the past decade, and every single location had the option of cable or DSL. I'm not sure how many moderate cities no longer have both, but even my brother in Cody, WY gets a choice between cable and DSL.


RE: Size matters
By drebo on 4/6/2007 2:53:33 AM , Rating: 4
That's not exactly the point he's making. It's not the fact that "both" are "available". It's the fact that other countries have FAR superior offerings for far less cost, and have had them for far longer than the US even had DSL and cable.

Hell, I remember hearing reports out of South Korea back before half the people in metropolitan areas in the US even knew what DSL was and when Cable internet was still a proof of concept. Back when if you wanted a fat pipe, you leased a T1. Back then, the reports I was hearing were that each Korean home was being wired for a 10-mbit drop.

This report not only looks at existing infrustructure (which, obviously sucks in the US), but also regulatory issues. The US government has always liked sticking its nose where it shouldn't be and placing artificial limits on various things. There's no reason why HDSL can't be deployed in many of these places or that FTTx couldn't be more wide-spread except for government interference.

For instance, if Verizon wanted to come to my town and say "We want to dig up the 10 main streets one at a time in order to lay fiber with the intention of providing low-cost, high-bandwidth internet, phone, and television to your city while maintaining a switching station/datacenter here, promoting job growth in the area, we'll cover all the costs for the road-ways.", I have absolutely no doubt what so ever in my mind that our city council and county planners would say no. They said no to a new state university a few years ago, and they'd say to no with this. What's better, though, is that I've no doubt in my mind that they would have no qualms about replacing the street light they replaced two years ago again or repaving a road near my house...again...for the third time in as many years.

The reason the US is doing poorly on this list is not because we don't have fast standards and infrustructure available to us. It's because our government refuses to let us tap into it and use it. The FCC limits the signal strength of any radio communications. They limit the amount of power that radio communications can carry. How are we supposed to deploy any sort of WiMAX network with these kinds of regulations? I mean, our large cities still have cellular service holes in them, and we're on cellular technology generations old compared to our far-east bretheren. Why? Pointless regulations and slow-moving government bodies.

Anyway, I should stop ranting now. Point is, the fact that we have "fast" connections available by our old standards is irrelevant when compared to the fact that certain other countries have had far superior technologies available for far longer.


RE: Size matters
By Targon on 4/6/2007 9:07:50 AM , Rating: 2
Yea, it would be nice to live in a country where the government gave a damn about technology(besides military). Look at the response to the tech crash of 2001-2002, there has been NOTHING done to encourage technology as a whole. Tons of money is given to select sectors, like drug companies and the military.

A lot of people out there also don't seem to realize that when the .com crash hit wall street, and later the tech sector, it wasn't JUST the .com companies, but many other tech companies suffered as a result. If a go-nowhere company run by some MBA goes down, that's one thing, but when well run companies with good products go down because the industry as a whole crashes, and it gets ignored, that SHOULD be seen as a real issue.


RE: Size matters
By JarredWalton on 4/6/2007 3:20:17 PM , Rating: 2
The real question to the above is whether there are actually a bunch of companies in the US beating on doors trying to roll out FiOS in a bunch of locations. I know some newer neighborhoods are being wired with fibre, but I'm not sure there's really a big effort from any companies in the US to rewire areas that already have cable. Should the government subsidize all of that just so more of us can get high bandwidth? Well, when we start paying 50% (and higher) taxes like Denmark, maybe they will....


RE: Size matters
By BZDTemp on 4/8/2007 8:36:16 AM , Rating: 2
The danish government is not subsidizing broadband or anything like that. But yes we do pay high taxes however if you make a budget and factor in your health insurance, the savings you must make to put your kids in college, the money you give to charity, the unemployment insurance you ought to have... then I think you'll see us Danes are not getting a bad deal.

Sure a high tax rate means less choice for the individual but there are many benefits and for example no one in Denmark is having to live on the street which is in strong contrast to a place like the US! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United...


RE: Size matters
By leidegre on 4/6/2007 4:02:10 AM , Rating: 4
I have a 100/100 symmetrical line, and I don't pay much at all, about ~18$/month, and I live in Sweden. The most popular ISP offer 100/100 symmetrical lines for about ~64$/month, and the only reason why I get off cheap is because I'm a student, and I get deals through my university.

Still, there are ISPs that dont look into the future, and try to sell 2mbit for a lot of money, more than mentioned above, I think that's crippling development, and it's necessary for ISP to invest and provide to encurage infrastructure.


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/6/2007 2:40:27 PM , Rating: 2
> In [...] Europe [...] they are getting
> 100mbs+ symmetrical lines into their HOME.

Any links to that? I live in Europe and would sure like to get one of those. I'd also like to know what kind of line that is (can't be coaxial or DSL), how much installation costs, and how ISPs manage to make any money if they give people 100 Mb/s upstream (turning everyone into a potential bandwidth and hosting provider) at low cost...


RE: Size matters
By BZDTemp on 4/7/2007 8:49:01 AM , Rating: 2
100/100 mbps is certainly not everywhere but it is available in many places in the Nordic countries. Fx. It can be had here in my neighborhood for around $65 at a flat rate or $30 where one pay per MB traffic on top of that - only thing is that more than 50% of the apartments in my building must sign up which won't happen since there are lot's of old people in the building being happy with a $6 a month 160/128 kbps :-/

Instead I'm stuck with a 20/1 mbps for around $70 a month.

Competition is though among the ISP's so usually there is zero fees for getting hooked up and there are even companies who's contracts you can end from day to day.

Here is a few links (all in Danish):
http://www.dongenergy.dk/privat/Fibernet/Tjenester...
http://www.cybercity.dk/produkter/privat/bredbaand...


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/7/2007 10:20:28 PM , Rating: 2
The highest speed I can see in those links is 20/1 Mb/s, and that costs 399 krone (54 euros) per month. That's probably plus VAT.

I know you can get Base-100 (i.e., LAN) connections to shared routers in some large buildings and apartment complexes, but you don't get an _independent_ 100 Mb/s connection to the ISP. And the upstream speed is often throttled along the way, to make sure that people don't set up private hosting businesses. Can you actually _serve_ 100 Mb/s over that line? I seriously doubt it.

BTW, around here the highest I can get (without paying several thousand euros for installation, and several hundred per month) is 24/1 Mb/s (ADSL2+) for about 40 euros a month. After some testing, I've determined that a lot of web servers are limited to 8 Mb/s per client, so I decided to get a 12/0.5 Mb/s line, which is about 30 euros a month.

I get the full 12 Mb/s to my ISP's servers (which, luckily, hosts a lot of mirrors - Twocows, Microsoft, Symantec, etc.), but not really to anywhere else (highest I've ever seen is about 9 Mb/s).


RE: Size matters
By BZDTemp on 4/9/2007 10:18:45 AM , Rating: 2
All prices shown are including VAT since by law prices advertised for consumers must include that sort of thing.

Also if you can't find the 100/100 you need to look again since it's there. Not sure if there are limit's to what you're allowed to do with the line since I haven't looked for any fine print.

Still you're right about many locations not letting you take advantage of the speed so if you're a lone surfer the benefits are limited at this moment. However it will change fast and also the situation is different if you're in a house with a whole family hitting the net hard and also renting movies over the net.


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/9/2007 7:11:18 PM , Rating: 2
The string "100" doesn't even appear in those pages. Maybe the server is sending me a different page? Could you cut & paste the part that mentions the 100/100 connecion, including terms and prices?

And lots of times companies post prices without VAT and then add "plus VAT" at the bottom. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is I can't see any mention of 100/100, let alone the cost of having it installed, or the monthly rates.


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/9/2007 7:20:22 PM , Rating: 2
From the link you posted above:

quote:
Få alt hvad din båndbredde kan trække – op til 20 Mbit
Solo Bredbånd op til 20 Mbit/s giver dig den maximale båndbredde - op til 20 Mbit/s.


Now, I can't say I'm very fluent in Danish, but it seems to me that says "Solo Broadband at 20 Mb/s gives you the ultimate bandwidth", meaning it's the maximum you can get (at least from that ISP).


RE: Size matters
By Griswold on 4/6/2007 6:26:29 AM , Rating: 3
You forgot Greenland. Its an, albeit autonomous, province of the kingdom of Denmark. ;)


RE: Size matters
By defter on 4/6/2007 10:21:25 AM , Rating: 4
That's a classic and very poor excuse for poor US rankings...

Countries like Finland and probably Sweden, have significantly LOWER population density than US. Stil their ranking is higher....

Actually, cell phone networks make more sense in LOOSELY populated areas, thus "US has not very good cell phone coverage becauase it isn't dense" argument doesn't make much sense.


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/6/2007 2:32:36 PM , Rating: 3
Correct:

USA population density: 31 per km²

Sweden population density: 20.0 per km²

Finland population density: 15.5 per km²


RE: Size matters
By theapparition on 4/7/2007 9:50:30 AM , Rating: 2
I'd like to point out two issues. First, population density is much less of a factor than shear physical area. The cost to roll out fiber to every corner in a state a fraction of the size of New York is paltry compared to the cost accociated with rolling it out througout the US. You must also completely wire Alaska for the way these rankings are computed.

Second, the US lags many other countries in mass market technologies, not because they are behind, rather because the US is usually the first to adopt said technologies. Other countries wireless phone networks, for example, are superior to the US because they installed next generation technology from the beginning and skipped analog service altogether.


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/7/2007 10:30:51 PM , Rating: 3
Theoretically, CDMA is actually superior to GSM in many ways. It's just that cellphones in Europe became so popular that GSM got a lot of improvements, and now it's even being adopted in the US (some parts, at least).

It seems European technology is driven mainly by "personal" social interaction (cell phones, internet as a means of communication, etc.).

US technology is driven more by entertainment (HDTV, TiVo, etc.) and business (more web shops, etc.).

One-to-one (and sometimes many-to-many) vs. one-to-many.


RE: Size matters
By Justin Case on 4/6/2007 2:26:57 PM , Rating: 2
> One of the things the report obfuscates
> is the fact that many of the "most ready"
> countries are extremely small.

They also have less people, less companies competing for the same market, etc.. And Denmark has areas with low population density, just like any other country. It might be smaller than NY, but it doesn't look like 1/3rd of NY. Overall it has a higher population density than the USA, but lower than the UK, for example.

There are a lot of countries smaller (and more populous) than Denmark (or Sweden, or the Netherlands, etc.) that have much worse network cover.

Of course, without knowing the exact methodology used to calculate these "scores", it's hard to make any comments about the ranking's accuracy or relevance, but it should at least be possible to compare them with the scores from previous years, to identify trends.


RE: Size matters
By JarredWalton on 4/6/2007 3:17:15 PM , Rating: 2
Well, that's one of the points that we can't really tell. I'm positive that people living outside of major cities in Denmark aren't getting 20 or 50 or 100 Mbps connections for a low cost. I'd wager the same of Sweden, Finland, etc. Having not been there in a while, though, I can't say for sure.

Anyone in one of those countries now able to confirm that you can get massive bandwidth in less populated areas? Anyway, back to Denmark. I believe roughly one third of the population lives in the greater Copenhagen area. That's a lot easier to wire for high speed than most of Jylland or Fyn. I'd be curious to know what the actual availability is like in a lot of the cities on the peninsula: Horsens, Herning, Frederickshavn, Kolding, Esbjerg, Skive, osv. I'd also like to know if the availability of higher bandwidth connections in Helsingoer, Roskilde, and Slagelse is anywhere near as good as what's in Kobenhavn, Soeborg, and some of the other "downtown" areas.


RE: Size matters
By DocDraken on 4/6/2007 4:09:39 PM , Rating: 2
You're right. Outside of Copenhagen and Århus (the 2 major cities/towns) the max speed available is ADSL 8mbps/512kbps with a few exceptions. The fastest mainstream product in the larger cities is 20Mbps/1Mbps. There are some special products with higher speeds but they are generally only available in particular parts of the major cities, or at colleges/residential coops in apartment complexes.

Where I live we have a 125mbps/125mbps line shared by a couple of apartment complexes, but my download experience is like I had my own 85Mbps line and it costs less than half as much as the fastest DSL here in spite of being several times faster. :)


RE: Size matters
By graynote on 4/6/2007 5:06:41 PM , Rating: 2
To be precise, I live in Ullerød a bit to the west of Hillerød - but I still get 20Mbps. That's pretty good I think.

The rollout of higher bandwidth connections has really picked up pace lately. If residents of Ullerød (more sheeps and goats than theese automobil-thingies here) can get 20Mbps, imagine who else can..

Regards
graynote


RE: Size matters
By DocDraken on 4/6/2007 4:12:15 PM , Rating: 2
PS: It's actually more like 1/5th of the population living in the greater Copenhagen area.


RE: Size matters
By graynote on 4/6/2007 4:52:42 PM , Rating: 2
Hi Jarred.

I live in Hillerød, which is smaller than Helsingør. I've got an 20Mbps DSL connection (flatrate). Hillerød is the black hole of internet here, and even small towns like Helsinge (7.240 pop) and so on can get 100/100Mbps at low cost. Amazingly towns (villages really) even smaller than the likes of Helsinge are covered too.

In Roskilde too, you can get 100/100.
Esbjerg and Slagelse were among the first cities in Denmark to offer cable connetctions - who should have guessed?

Let it be said, though, that it's only just recently that the expansion of higher bandwidth connections has really taken of.

Regards
graynote


RE: Size matters
By JarredWalton on 4/6/2007 10:26:57 PM , Rating: 2
Wow, cool - I actually visited Hillerød and Birkerød quite a few times when I was there. Did most of the country rewire with fiber optic, then? Also, was there government involvement with the rewiring? Funny thing is that when I was in Denmark, costs of living were amazingly high compared to the US, including per minute telephone charges even when calling someone within the same city. Back then some people were complaining about dial-up costs (92-95). That's part of the reason so many people just used cell phones: more convenient and they didn't cost any more than regular phone.

Of course, my recollection is that there were a lot of apartment complexes throughout Denmark. It was sort of like living in a college community in that sense: probably 75% of the people seemed to live in an apartment complex. That may have just been my perception, but that would certainly make it a lot more cost-effective to rewire.

As for cars, those are always so expensive that most Danes view them as a luxury item. Over here, most families have at least one car, if not two or three - and we all drive around polluting. I miss the mass transit system of Denmark, that's for sure. Now that the bridge/tunnel between Sjaeland and Jylland is complete, the one area where I had issues a few times while traveling by train (bad weather delayed the ferries several hours one time) is now gone.

PS - curse the lack of an easy way to get special characters.


RE: Size matters
By DocDraken on 4/7/2007 1:04:52 AM , Rating: 2
Hmm. I have to say I'm pretty dubious.

Which companies offer 100/100 (sold to single houses/apartments, not restricted to apartment complexes) in whole of Helsinge? Is it more than just a single town experiment thing? I doubt that as a single customer you can get other than DSL in 99% of the towns in Denmark. But of course there are some exceptions.

The crappy Esenet in Esbjerg was slower and more expensive than DSL (of course other companies available). Max speed 1-2Mbps. I come from Esbjerg and know lots of people living different places in Jutland and the max speed they can get is 8/0,5mbps...


RE: Size matters
By nofranchise on 4/8/2007 10:54:52 AM , Rating: 2
A comment to JarrodWaltons reply:

You can actually get 20/1 mbit lines for around 65$ in towns like Frederikshavn and Hjørring in the northern part of Denmark. Those cities don't have any more than 10-15.000 people.

It must be said though, that generally I think Sweden has better pricing on broadband connections from 10mbit to 100/100 symmetrical lines (if they exist...) Thats what I hear from friends in Sweden anyway...


RE: Size matters
By BZDTemp on 4/7/2007 8:24:11 AM , Rating: 2
I don't think size has much to say or else there are plenty of countries in which people live closer together than Denmark. Also remember the other Nordic countries are high on the list and they certainly have more room for their people that we have here in Denmark.

Anyway internet access is just one of the things having an impact on the list. Education is another and there are huge differences between the Nordic countries where Higher Education is free and countries where it's not (In fact here in Denmark you get something like 10 grand a year from the goverment when studying once you're eighteen and not living at home).


Argument
By aurareturn on 4/5/2007 3:55:34 PM , Rating: 2
The argument that always comes up in this is that the U.S. is so large, it would take so much more money to wire the country up.

In reality, these Bell, telco, cable companies are so freaking rich and big, they can wire this country up in no time if they cared about the country instead of making mass amount of money.

Most people are still on 1.5mbs connections or lower while the rest of the world are going to get 100mbs symmetrical lines.




RE: Argument
By Justin Case on 4/6/2007 2:43:15 PM , Rating: 2
> Most people are still on 1.5mbs connections
> or lower while the rest of the world are
> going to get 100mbs symmetrical lines.

There you go again with the 100 Mb/s symmetrical lines. Where exactly can I get one, what kind of cabling does it use, how much does it cost, and what web servers can transfer at that speed?


RE: Argument
By aurareturn on 4/7/2007 2:39:57 AM , Rating: 2
Don't have it in your part of Europe? Move to another.


RE: Argument
By Justin Case on 4/7/2007 10:39:29 PM , Rating: 2
Can you give me a link to any ISP that will supply a (non-shared) 100/100 Mb/s connection to home users, with prices?

I can get one (hell, I can even get a T5 - 565 Mb/s), but it's not really economically viable, and it's not even something that ISPs bother to advertise publicly. I only know how much it costs because I worked as a consultant for a web hosting company, and they wanted a line into their own datacenter, instead of colocation.

I'd love to know where I can get one for a price similar to, say, 24/1 Mb/s ADSL, which is what you seem to be talking about.

That's a real, symmetrical, 100/100 Mb/s connection to the internet (well, to the ISP). Not one shared with the rest of the building or apartment complex.


RE: Argument
By Sunner on 4/11/2007 5:40:29 AM , Rating: 2
I get 100 down, I think it's 10 up these days, used to be 100 up, but after they made it a standard service and dropped the price to about €15/month, the lowered the outbound bandwidth.
I say unsure, cause in reality, I can easily upload at way over 10 Mbit/sec to people on certain networks, but I imagine those are either on the same backbone as my ISP, or actually part of my ISP through daughter companies or some such.

Anyways, yeah, €15/month for 100/10 is pretty ok.
I first got 100/100 3 years ago or so, use to cost about €55 back then, while the basic 10/10 service was €30.
10/10 has been available in my area for something like 6 years by the way.

And yes, anyone around here can get a fiber connection to their house, it'll cost you(I think it's about €1200 for the fiber connection itself) initially, but after you have the physical line, it's about €20 per month for 100/100.
With rebates available if entire neighborhoods get it at once.

www.bredband.com is my ISP.


RE: Argument
By Grast on 4/9/2007 7:05:27 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, the telco and cable companies do make a good amount of profit. What is your point? If you are jelious of the profit, buy stock in the company and get some of that profit. Just because a company makes a profit does not mean they are screwing their end customers. It means the services which are being offered is acceptable.

The average person in the U.S. does not need nor want a 100Mbs connect to the Internet. They want faster than dial-up which basically translates to instant or always on network connection. Cable and DSL are perfectly acceptable for 90 of the consumer market. That is reason faster methods of communication have not yet been widely deployed in the U.S.

Additionally, the current telco and cable companies have millions of miles of current infrustructor which they would like to continue to use. Once again though if you believe the telco or cable companies are making too much money, GO BUY STOCK AND GET SOME OF THE PROFIT.

Later....


Flat rate in Denmark?
By Mudvillager on 4/5/2007 8:54:07 PM , Rating: 2
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Danish ISP's aren't too keen on flat rate broadband. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this or am I just remembering wrong?




RE: Flat rate in Denmark?
By DocDraken on 4/5/2007 10:36:30 PM , Rating: 2
Basically all broadband connections are flat rate here. There are options to get pay-per-MB, but that's more of a niche product.


RE: Flat rate in Denmark?
By Shintai on 4/6/2007 9:33:46 AM , Rating: 2
Ye, anything not flatrate is a very veyr rare niche product.

Only 20mbit here tho :(


RE: Flat rate in Denmark?
By Justin Case on 4/6/2007 2:44:42 PM , Rating: 2
Considering ADSL2+ tops out at around 26 Mb/s (and you only really get that if you're pretty close to a router), 20 Mb/s is not all that bad. I doubt most of your transfers come anywhere near that, though (I consider myself lucky when I can get an 8 Mb/s average from any server outside my ISP).


where's the content?
By Homerboy on 4/6/2007 9:32:37 AM , Rating: 2
yet the vast majority of the content is located in the United States.




RE: where's the content?
By BZDTemp on 4/7/2007 8:55:00 AM , Rating: 2
Just as the most spam is coming from the US :-)


RE: where's the content?
By Justin Case on 4/7/2007 10:43:45 PM , Rating: 2
The vast majority of content in English, perhaps. I'm not so sure if the majority of pages in Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, etc., are hosted in the USA.

And most big companies like Microsoft, Symantec, etc., have distributed networks, so when I connect to "Microsoft.com" from Ireland, the connection is actually to a local mirror (ex., run by Akamai, somehwere in the UK), not to Microsoft's server in the USA.


heh
By Xeronix on 4/5/2007 6:10:04 PM , Rating: 2
Its not surprising that New Zealand is 2nd to last.




RE: heh
By Felofasofa on 4/5/2007 9:33:51 PM , Rating: 2
I'm in Aussie stuck on 128k isdn. Outside the major metros Aussie's crap. Even in town they're mostly one and half meg connections.


By Tooms on 4/6/2007 5:14:57 AM , Rating: 2
Offcource we need Internet connections to access the Internet, but i think this report mostly look at other things like the e-government services.
In denmark citicen is given a digital singnatur from the denish government to access alot of e-service.

to name a few of them.

access to tax service where you can see and change all about you tax things.

civil registration number, here you can see why have access you civil registration details over time

health care, see your own whole medical record and book hospital time.

and there is many many other services that we danish can use and i think that is what count high in the report.

For the Internet access, we still have small parts of the country when there is only ISDN connection, both mostly is DSL or FTTH and the FTTH are slowly to take off.




Jordan, MT
By evonitzer on 4/6/2007 6:22:58 AM , Rating: 2
Yay, I'm from Jordan! Near enough to count in a comment forum anyway.

In other news, the internet service sucks.




That chick
By jmunjr on 4/6/2007 7:04:33 PM , Rating: 2
I don't really care about these reports too much, but I do know that chick in the picture is one ugly looking woman..




Network Size
By Setsunayaki on 4/9/2007 5:48:27 AM , Rating: 2
One can have a 100mbps connection and a super strong national network, but realistically speaking...

I have not found any servers out there that will let you download at 12.5MB/sec for 100mbps. Also no consumer grade Router protecting your network has a throughput of 100mbps. This means Linksys, D-link and Netgear will bottleneck your connections.

I remember owning linksys routers for a long time. My connection was bottlenecked at 16mbps. I also had a lot of problems and no real protection. In order for me to gain a router that is closer to 100mbps throughput, I went out and bought a firebox x5 and x15 and im trying to obtain an x500. Where you can buy a consumer grade router for $50....Fireboxes are around $500 and up designed for businesses and offer real security and throughput. The proof of it all is that linksys, netgear and d-link will hide their internal specifications from you. All they will tell you is "Wireless Bandwith, Sell the idea of 100mbps LAN speeds (which is not a reality)" and won't tell you about the processor speed and its multipliers along with its real data protection.......

See, when a nation upgrades to create a national network...This means more protection is needed as the faster the connection is, the easier it is to transfer malicious files back and forth. Security also costs a lot of money and many reports love to brag about the strength of the bandwith but fail to mention about the security and stability of tne network.

While we can all use more upload for our connections...Not many people in the world would use high upload. As far as Downloads go......I havent found one single server in the world that allows a 12.5MB/sec download speed of a file.

Denmark may have the goods, but realistically speaking, one downloads at the slower rate of the two connections or the set "MaxDownStreamLimit" Variable one sets to a server.

Remember, that if you own a 100mbps connection, you will hope MANY people can connect and download simultaneously. In the end you will set your maximum allowed download speed to a low number to allow stability to exist in the server and your connection to survive.

In the end, Raw numbers alone don't determine strength....which is what these reports end up acting like "If you pass certain numbers and ratings, you score higher" and since they dont have the time to thoroughly check the networks of a nation, which will take many years to complete such research in an ever changing world...the end is a flawed report such as that which is generated.

Now Lets see everyone in the Nation of Denmark with a Firebox or Cisco business router to handle the stress and security of the high bandwith connections at every single house in the nation along with everyone downloading and uploading at max allowed speed....Not going to happen.




Germanys internet sucks
By Nik00117 on 4/5/2007 4:09:55 PM , Rating: 1
I'm live in Germany, and their tech service, and internet really suck.

I lost my PPOPE account details, my ISP refused to give the details over the phone and then said they'd e-mail it to me, and i was like "No internet no e-mail duh!" and then they snail mailed it to me, took 2 weeks to get access.

Or we wanted to switch, we'd be out of internet with 3 weeks, I take courses online, and so does my dad. We can't afford 3 weeks downtime. So we wanted to order a service 3-4 weeks earlier, but no our line had to be shutdown for 3 weeks before they could get the other connection up.

O BTW its the same line they share the line.




lol
By DigitalFreak on 4/5/07, Rating: -1
RE: lol
By Moishe on 4/5/2007 2:38:47 PM , Rating: 2
Not a very good picture of her.


RE: lol
By Some1ne on 4/5/2007 4:52:01 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe not the best picture ever, but she's still pretty hot.


RE: lol
By Marcus Yam on 4/5/2007 2:48:34 PM , Rating: 1
Haven't met her myself, so I can't say for sure. But I do love Denmark... and basically the rest of Scandinavia. :P


RE: lol
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 4/5/2007 2:52:08 PM , Rating: 3
Don't let Sven hear you say that.


RE: lol
By poohbear on 4/5/2007 9:27:11 PM , Rating: 2
whoah, i thought danish girls are supposed to be hot? what happened to her?!


RE: lol
By GNStudios on 4/6/2007 4:52:01 AM , Rating: 2
They are, and it's close to Sweden. :-)


RE: lol
By Tooms on 4/6/2007 5:19:36 AM , Rating: 2
Irene has been up all night to write this report, she is just sleepy. :-)


RE: lol
By BZDTemp on 4/7/2007 9:13:32 AM , Rating: 2
She's not danish but most likely from Italy, France or perhaps Switzerland.

http://www.aydon-consultants.com/pages/cv_irenemia...

Oh and danish woman are nice. Smart, good looking and free spirited :-)

A few totally random danes:

Helena Christensen
Renee Toft Simonsen
Cecilie Thomsen
Scarlett Johansson (okay, only 50% as her father is danish)