Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Compare the average population density of the US to that of Europe, or especially Japan. Most other "first-world" nations have a much, much higher density than we do -- Japan is something like 10 times as dense on average. That means broadband providers can reach 10 times as many customers per unit of infrastructure (roughly), which is why it's so lucrative to invest in fat pipes over there. We've got huge numbers of people in "flyover country" where localized population densities are so low that it may never make sense to run expensive cables.

Wireless broadband may make a bit more sense in places like this, but there are so many people in Europe and Asia that are well-served by cheap, efficient backbones in high-population areas that not as much time and effort has been spent on wireless as might otherwise have been the case. We're getting there, though, and when we start seeing broad WiBro/WiMax/whatever rollouts, the numbers may well change. Either that, or BPL (Broadband over Power Lines)...