Regarding WiFi in Japan vs the US, Jesse wrote:
We already have 4G in Japan…. and it is already too slow but boasts speeds of 100mbps.
3g is only good for non-mobile systems. It only goes a max of 384kbps for mobile systems, and that is if it has a good connection…
Dude explained:
beacause the US is so concerned with “preserving the free market”, our
government refuses to mandate a standard. Therefore, we have
competing standards and no one wants to risk buying and deploying the
wrong standard. In addition, we have a state (and federal)
legislature that is woefully ill-prepared for considering such issues,
and they have been swindled by the telecom industry who has lobbied
them to believe that making it illegal for municipalities to deploy
free WiFi networks is in the public interests. It is argued that the
public sector is inherently ill-equipped to handle such a high-tech
utility and will ultimately result in mismanagement and excessive
taxpayer expense. Of course the truth is that huge telecom copmanies
like AT&T (Formerly SBC), Verizon, Time Warner, etc. want to force
people to buy WiFi and they conjure up these tortured arguments so
that they can make more money at the expense of progress. The result
is that Japan has 4G WiFi all over the city and in subways and other
difficult areas, and that most major cities in the US have spotty
cellular service for which people pay through the nose, and no free
WiFi. Isn’t laissez faire capitalism awesome!?!?