The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation criticized a...
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation criticized a study on broadband pricing for giving an “inaccurate picture” of telecom performance. Americans in major cities are paying higher prices for slower Internet, the New America Foundation concluded in a study released…
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Monday (CD Oct 29 p13) (http://bit.ly/1bzOSO7). Eight cities around the world now offer speeds of 1 gigabit per second, compared with just two cities last year, said the study. NAF’s studies have “continuously cherry picked data and compared ‘apples to oranges,'” ITIF said. The new study “wrongly compares rates charged by boutique ISPs with under 1,000 customers in urban areas to those charged by companies that serve millions of people in suburban and rural areas,” ITIF said. It fails to take into account the “significant government subsidies many nations implement to keep broadband prices artificially low,” said ITIF, with board members who work for Apple, Cisco, Qualcomm and others. America has made great strides in improving average connection speeds over the last five years, ITIF said, citing an Akamai report that places the U.S. eighth in the world in average connection speed. “Instead of focusing on problems we don’t have, broadband advocates should be advocating for programs to improve broadband and computer adoption, where the U.S. continues to lag behind."