Japan is Web "Future-Ready." U.S. lags far behind.
Japan is the place to be if you’re looking for the bandwidth to tackle future technologies – things like HD video streaming, visual networking and large file-sharing, according to a study by researchers from the Said Business School at the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo's Department of Applied Economics.
The researchers looked at 42 countries to understand how prepared each nation was for future Web technologies. Japan ranked first but the U.S. was No. 16 on the list, still ahead of the U.K. and Canada but well behind Korea, Germany and France, among others. In Europe, Sweden and The Netherlands had the best performing broadband connections not only because of their investments in fiber and cable network upgrades but also because of strong government vision and policy, the researchers found. From the study:
The Broadband Quality study was developed on the premise that the new generation of web applications will rely on a higher level of performance of broadband connections. Average download speeds are adequate for web browsing, email and basic video downloading and streaming, but we are seeing more interactive applications, more user-generated content being uploaded and shared, and an increasing amount of high-quality video services becoming available. Moreover, because the study also found significant correlation between a nation’s broadband quality and its advancement as a knowledge economy, policy makers may need to consider how to create an environment to improve key broadband performance parameters in the future.
The U.S. is becoming somewhat of a third-world country when it comes to broadband deployment and adoption. These findings drive home that point even further and should send a wake-up call to Washington that a cavalier attitude toward technology and innovation will eventually catch up the U.S. and cripple its citizens and businesses as a competitor on the global business stage.
