Richard Martin Blog: In U.S., Soccer Booms, Broadband Doesn't

“How does it feel to live in a third-world country?” cracked British comedian Ricky Gervais from the stage of his latest tour visit to New York City. That’s a question that more and more people are asking as deficits spiral out of control, unemployment soars, and the United States languishes behind most developed economies in technology ranking like broadband penetration. Oh yes, and then there’s soccer.

More than 24 million American fans watched the World Cup championship match, between Spain and the Netherlands, The New York Times reported, “a figure more than the average viewership for last year’s World Series games between the Yankees and the Phillies.”

It’s certainly a welcome development to see the U.S. embrace the world’s game, despite the bleating of boneheaded sports-pundit anachronisms like Rick Reilly and Jim Rhome. Not so welcome are the latest statistics on broadband development from Strategy Analytics, which are even more dismal than the already-depressing broadband penetration rankings from the OECD, which year after year show the U.S. loitering in 15th place or so, behind such technological powerhouses as Luxembourg and Belgium

Strategy Analytics takes a more multivariant approach to grading broadband development, including measures of household penetration, speed, affordability, value for money, and “urbanicity.” By these more sophisticated gauges, the U.S. drops to 23rd on the list.

"With essentially zero intra-platform competition, US service providers have little incentive to innovate offerings or differentiate beyond par," said Ben Piper, director of multiplay market dynamics at SA.

Okay, what about mobile data services, where the iPhone and Android-based devices have sparked a revolution of sorts in mobile Web usage?

Ahh, not quite. "We are a third-world country where mobile is concerned. The rest of the world is using mobile phones underground, to pay for a parking space blocks away, to buy a Coke from a vending machine," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, which just released a survey of mobile Web usage in the U.S., according to the Associated Press. "We in America are still having trouble getting our phones to work."

None of this will change until the federal government clamps down on the anti-competitive practices of the major carriers and finds a way to incentivize rural providers to bring high-speed access to underserved parts of the country. None of which seems likely in a year when anti-tax, anti-government Republicans are set to make big gains in congressional elections in the fall.

Oh well, there’s one area where we remain at the top of the rankings: incarceration rates. When it comes to locking up our citizens for non-violent crimes, nobody beats the U.S. of A.