[pp.int.general] Broadband access becomes Legal Right

[Reinier Bakels]

>> Anyway, 1MB pretty soon won't be considered "broadband" anymore.
>
> That's why they aim 100 Mbit/s for 2015. In germany we still have lot of
> areas, where 1 Mbit/s would be more than twice the speed you can get at
> the moment.
> Of course, in big cities you can provide more bandwith, but a legal right
> for a certain speed would be a great improvment. No more begging for some
> speed in front of the providers' hqs...
>
I think the true problem is the "tragedy of the commons" here: a truly 
high-speed infrastructure is useful for many applications, but private 
financing may not be able to benefit from all (potential) applications. And 
infrastrucure is expensive, in particular the infamous "last mile". The 
Netherlands has the advantage (in this respect) of being densely populated, 
so the cable (CATV) prenetration is high. But the policy is to squeeze as 
much as possible from the existing infrastructure, rather than implementing 
new future-proof infrastructures (needed e.g. for HDTV over Internet). The 
"Law of the handicap of a head start" is a problem.
Naturally there is a government role to overcome such "tragedy of the 
commons" situations. But who knows whether they choose the right, 
"future-proof" technology? My understanding is that the Germans after the 
reunification took the opportunity to install glass-fiber all over 
East-Berlin - but they chose the wrong technology so the benefit is low.
Also IIRC competition authorities (Bxl) don't like state intervention.

I am old enough to know that any speed that is perceived as astronomic at 
any point in time sooner or later becomes reality, and not much later 
becomes obsolete. Twenty years ago I started at home with a modem as 
expensive as todays netbooks - at 1200 bps. For my customers, 9600 bps fixed 
lines were used, speeds above 9600 bpos were considered "high speed", using 
V.35 plugs as big as a package of cigarettes.

Pretty soon, 1 mbps is as old fashioned as a steam engine.

reinier