The main problem seems to be the lack of competition due to restricted infrastructure. In a lot of areas in the US, you only have one company that provides service to the area you live in. In a situation like that, the provider has little motivation to improve the service. This needs to be recognized as monopolistic and the infrastructure needs to be opened up so that it can be used by other providers.
Luckily, there is some decent competition in the wireless internet space. As technology continues to improve there, more people will have access to decent internet speeds wirelessly and the wired infrastructure will feel pressure to catch up. Hopefully more options for unlimited data plans will also become available in the near future.
As far as the absurd amount TV providers are charging for HD TV, DVR services and the like. Technologies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple and others are providing more internet-based services that provide this type of On-demand service at a much more reasonable price. I hope more content will become available on these types of services as more people realize how much better of a user experience it is over watching normal network TV (even with DVR).
Yeah, I think more and better competition is the answer but I'm not sure what the best way is to get there. More regulation? Less? We do, for the most part, have pretty good baseline infrastructure in the US. The infrastructure part of the problem is the 'last mile' piece, but in my mind this is something that can be easily accomplished by new, locally based entities. I think that municipally owned broadband is a really interesting option - GreenLight in Wilson, NC has had some good success: http://www.wilsonnc.org/living/fiberopticnetwork/greenlighth... - but they have had to fight off lobbying efforts by TimeWarner Cable and others to make such municipally owned efforts illegal, and the legality of such services is still on a State by State basis.
So - I guess another question might be, how do we make Community owned broadband an attractive option across the country?
Luckily, there is some decent competition in the wireless internet space. As technology continues to improve there, more people will have access to decent internet speeds wirelessly and the wired infrastructure will feel pressure to catch up. Hopefully more options for unlimited data plans will also become available in the near future.
As far as the absurd amount TV providers are charging for HD TV, DVR services and the like. Technologies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple and others are providing more internet-based services that provide this type of On-demand service at a much more reasonable price. I hope more content will become available on these types of services as more people realize how much better of a user experience it is over watching normal network TV (even with DVR).