The market will lead

Mr. THOMAS BLEHA (Author, "Overtaken on the Information Superhighway"): The average access speed in the United States today is around five megabits per second.

RAZ: Mm-hmm.

Mr. BLEHA: In Japan, the average speed is over 60 megabits per second...

RAZ: Six...

Mr. BLEHA: ...or 12 times as fast.

RAZ: How did the United States fall so far behind?

Mr. BLEHA: Well, as you know, at the end of the Clinton-Gore administration, we were among the world's leaders. When President Bush and Vice President Cheney came to office, they simply weren't interested. And on every other advanced country, the government has led. Here, the government said the market will lead. In other countries, governments developed strategies with goals and deadlines, and they also subsidized the advance of fiber broadband.

NPR interview with Thomas Bleha

See also.