Sorry Left, U.S. Actually Does the Internet Better Than Europe

Published May 9, 2013

We’ve heard it from the Left for years.  Europe allegedly has much better, faster and cheaper Internet service than does the United States – because the European Union and individual governments are far more involved in regulating and even funding service providers.

Why is European Broadband Faster and Cheaper? Blame the Government

New York Times Three-Part Series:

The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Faster?

The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Cheaper?

The Broadband Gap: Why Do They Have More Fiber?

The Left’s “solution?”  Get the U.S. government far more involved.

The Left constantly complains that there aren’t enough U.S. service providers – so they want the government to get in the service providing business.

(2009) Stimulus Bill Includes $7.2 Billion for Broadband

And how’s that worked out?

GAO: Broadband Stimulus Vulnerable to Waste, Fraud, Abuse

The Internet ‘Stimulus’-Just as Destructive as the Rest of the ‘Stimulus’

Yet Another Terrible Internet ‘Stimulus’ Project

More Waste: Stimulus Spent $7 Million Per Household on Montana Broadband Access

The Left wants the Internet and cellular market much more heavily regulated – like they do in Europe.  Again, the Barack Obama Administration is (in unilateral, Congress-free fashion) delivering.

(Federal Communications Commission) FCC Votes 3-2 to Regulate Internet Via Net Neutrality

FCC Approves Mandatory Data Roaming Rules

Executive Order: Obama’s Cyber Security Power Grab

As the Administration and the Left remake our Internet and cell phone landscape in the image of their sainted Europe – what is the Old World doing?

Realizing their model is an utter disaster, and looking to roll back the types of regulations the Obama Administration is piling on.

Are more regs and providers a good idea?  Not so much.

When the bosses of global mobile operators meet in Barcelona this week, there will be an elephant in the room: the widening gap between fast-growing and richly-valued U.S. telecoms companies and their ailing European counterparts.

An overcrowded market, tough regulations and recession are hampering European telcos’ ability to invest in faster networks, increasing the risk that the region’s flagging economy falls further behind the United States and parts of Asia….

The gap reflects differences in the competitive landscape. Europe has about 100 mobile firms to the United States’ six, as well as harsher rules that have sapped profitability and contributed to four straight years of revenue decline.

Not really at all.

Consumers could face arbitrarily high costs just to call a neighboring state or town. Businesses wanting to sell service nationally through mergers or network-sharing arrangements could be impeded by a patchwork of conflicting market rules….

(W)ith economic growth in the bloc near the top of policy makers’ agenda, the Continent’s balkanized telecommunications industry is coming under new scrutiny, which may create an opportunity to dismantle some of the structural obstacles to a single market.

Signs of those changes are beginning to appear.

So as the Administration and the Left continue to build here their Old World-esque uber-regulatory Internet fantasy, a newer Europe is seeing Reality set in – and heading in the opposite direction.

This Administration is, as usual, utterly impervious to Reality.

It’s going to be a very long second four years.

[First published at Red State]