The appeal and legacy of the United States has always been economic prosperity founded, in part, on a solid nationwide infrastructure that enables a vibrant economy and a high quality of life. In recent years, however, America has fallen alarmingly behind in the deployment of the broadband infrastructure critical to our economy and standard of living in the digital age.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2008 the United States ranked 15th – falling from 4th in 2001 – in broadband penetration. Other groups, such as The Brookings Institution, rank the United States even lower. Most experts believe the United States will continue to slide as it has each year since the OECD began to track broadband penetration around the world.

Real Broadband

The ranking is even worse when we realize that the U.S. is so dependent on “little” broadband (200 Kbps), while many countries are aggressively implementing 50 and 100 Mbps services. Not only does t he United States lag behind in broadband penetration; we also pay more in head-to-head match-ups with South Korea and Japan. Residents in parts of Japan have Internet connections of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) for just over $56 a month. Internet subscribers in France pay only $3.70 per megabit, while U.S. consumers pay on average $12.60 each month for the same service.

Broadband consumers in the United States pay more for less and are denied true broadband access because they are subject to the control, limitations, and non-competitive prices of incumbent service carriers’ monopolies.

Communities Need an Alternative

America’s communities are increasingly looking for dynamic solutions capable of delivering competitive world-class services that improve business productivity, accelerate economic growth and enrich the lives of residents. The benefits of such solutions to local communities are enormous. Forward-looking communities delivering advanced communications services improve the local tax base and attract new residents and businesses to their economy. These dynamic cities are seizing the initiative to build service provider-independent networks; they refuse to allow incumbent carriers and their monopolistic practices to control this next-generation infrastructure and be the sole source in determining the timing and pricing of true broadband services for their communities.

The number of homes in the United States connected directly to fiber is growing, but we still lag far behind what is required for us to compete effectively in a global economy. Only 217 communities are currently utilizing fiber-optic networks for their communications services, according to statistics from the Fiber to the Home Council and TIA. This represents less than 0.5 percent of the 55,000 towns and municipalities in the U.S.

DynamicCity Approach

DynamicCity, the architect and authority on open access fiber networks, is empowering a broad range of U.S. communities to fulfill the promise of becoming dynamic cities themselves by partnering with them and others to deliver life-enhancing, cost-effective broadband services and content. Starting with UTOPIA, the nation’s largest municipal fiber network project, including 16 cities and 175,000 potential subscribers throughout Utah, DynamicCity assists communities to take control of their digital future. These community fiber networks facilitate greater consumer choice along with breakthrough broadband services at significantly reduced cost, thereby helping America regain global broadband competitiveness.

“Broadband can help narrow the information gap between rich and poor, and urban and rural areas… Municipalities and communities are trying hard to deliver those benefits to all their citizens and businesses despite private-sector opposition,” according to Lindsay Schroth of the Yankee Group in a recent Broadband Business Report.