Why Is Broadband Internet More Expensive in the US?

Basically it comes down to a failure of regulation -- the FCC and Obama Administration have dropped the ball -- and there probably isn't a more important issue for economic progress and infrastructure. Will Washington wake up, or will Obama's carrier-connected, conflicted FCC chair, continue to cater to ISPs?

BBC News - Why is broadband more expensive in the US?: "...The price of basic broadband, TV and phone packages - or bundles as they are known - is much higher in American cities than elsewhere, suggests the New America Foundation think tank, which compared hundreds of available packages worldwide. Looking at some of the cheaper ones available in certain cities, at lower to mid download speeds, San Francisco ($99/£61), New York ($70) and Washington DC ($68) dwarf London ($38), Paris ($35) and Seoul ($15)..."

Why is Netflix streaming slow? Major peering dispute with ISPs | BGR: " . . . What this really boils down to, explains Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin, is a dispute over peering. Most of the time, ISPs and bandwidth providers such as Cogent Communications have peering agreements to swap traffic with one another without any additional charge. However, ISPs apparently think the rise of video streaming over their networks has upset the balance that peering agreements have traditionally struck which is why they’re trying to change things up. . . ."

Time Warner Cable Raises Rates (Again), Adds 'Broadcast TV' Fee | DSLReports, ISP Information: "As with most rate hikes, the notices are accompanied with the insistence that the hikes are about bringing you added "value," and necessary because of all the great upgrades the companies have been busy with. Except in Time Warner Cable's case those upgrades have been slow in coming, the company considerably slower than Comcast in deploying faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds or new TV technologies."

Inside Scoop: Samsung S5 and other Mobile World Congress soothsayings Video
CNET
....All eyes are on Barcelona, Spain, ...(Mobile World Congress, February 24-27, Barcelona)

How Will WhatsApp Coexist With a Company Whose Business It Hates?
Businessweek
In recent weeks Facebook has been talking up the strategy it hopes will help keep it from fading into obsolescence during its second decade. In earnings calls and profiles in prestigious business publications, Mark Zuckerberg has talked about the value of ...

YouTube Gets a Makeover With Layout, Playlist Tweaks
PC Magazine
If you browsed over to YouTube this morning, you may have noticed that things look a little bit different. The Google-owned video-sharing site has received a mini-makeover, including changes to the layout and playlists. "The way you watch YouTube keeps ...
What Is WhatsApp? An Explainer | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: " The app also uploads all of a user's contacts and requires them to individually block users with whom they do not want contact. Additionally, even the numbers of those who do not use WhatsApp are stored in the app in perpetuity."

Google's Project Tango Sees All
InformationWeek
Current smartphones can manage limited tracking of position and orientation, but lack the full range of sensors and precision to run the kinds of applications Google envisions. More significantly, they aren't designed to place the device within a 3D ...

Hey Microsoft, where's the next Mac Office?
Computerworld
Historically, Microsoft has hewn to a three-year development cycle for both Office on the Mac and the far-more-popular Office suite for Windows, with a new version of the former following the newest of the latter by several months at a minimum. Office ...

Apple Acting More Like Microsoft Than Facebook
Forbes
Not only has Apple been slow to enter new categories with in-house products, it has also been beaten out for acquisitions by rivals like Facebook and Google Google. Whether or not Apple bid for assets like smart appliance maker Nest Labs, which Google ...

Google Fiber Plans Expansion To 34 New Cities (Including Salt Lake)
Forbes
The race for the Internet gigabit space took another leap forward this week with Google Google Fiber's announcement that it has targeted 34 more cities in 9 metro areas for access to Google internet services at the increasingly popular 1Gps speed. Salt ...

Google Borrows $1 Billion With First Bond Sale in Three Years
Bloomberg
Google Inc. (GOOG) sold bonds for the first time in three years, borrowing funds to refinance $1 billion of maturing debt even after its cash hoard swelled to a record of more than $60 billion. The owner of the world's largest search engine issued 3 ...

Google Fiber may be fast, but it takes time to build
San Jose Mercury News
If you live in one of the five Silicon Valley cities Google may wire for high speed Internet, don't expect it to happen overnight. Based on the experience of Kansas City, whereGoogle is building its first high-speed network, it could take a couple of ...

Microsoft Stops Hiding Office's Free Online Edition
TIME
PS Apple has iCloud and it's giving Office Online a run for its money and totally blows Google Drive out of the water when it comes to presentations (haven't tried it for anything else)....

Google makes good on threat, flips 'kill switch' on some Chrome add-ons
Computerworld
By forcing add-on developers to publish their work in the Store, Google moved another step closer to a closed market, the kind popularized by Apple's mobile app ecosystem, where it can more easily vet the extensions and then yank them if necessary. On ...

Google deal is no 'gentlemen's agreement', says EU antitrust chief
Chicago Tribune
PARIS (Reuters) - The EU antitrust chief defended a deal with Google over how it displays web search results, following criticism from rival firms and his own colleagues, saying there had been no gentlemen's agreement to close the case. The world's ...

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)

Follow @expricom