FiOS and Lightspeed: The Rise of the Crippled Networks.

America is 16th in the world in broadband according to the International Telecommunications Union.

FiOS and Lightspeed are inferior products and can't deliver competitive speeds and we are being overcharged for what speed we get. Let's assume that these new fiber optic networks do show up. One has only to look at what is being promised to know we will never be Number 1 in broadband and technology with the Bells' current plans.

FiOS or Lightspeed can't compete with Asia's current services. FiOS is up to 30 Mbps in one direction and cost $199. Korea and Japan offer 100 Mbps in both directions for around $40.

	Price	Top Speed	Upstream	Cost per Meg
FiOS	$199	30 Mbps	2-5 Mbps	$6.63
DSL (acg)	$18.	768K	128K	$23.42
Korea	$38	100 Mbps	4-100 Mbps	$.34
Japan	$41	100 Mbps	35-100Mbps	$.41

In comparing the cost per-megabit, the US is $6.63 for FiOS, as compared to $.34 to $.41 cents in Korea and Japan.

DSL pricing per megabit is well over $23.42 per megabit. If this is the best we get, in 5 years America will be farther behind.

*Note: This $17.99 price is the advertised amount. However, it requires a year commitment as well as buying a bundle of services. To be fair, we should be using the standard $29.95 if you buy a bundle or $39.95 for ala carte. These prices do not include the US taxes and surcharges and other questionable fees, like the 'tax recovery charge' Also, 768K is the 'top speed', not the actual speed. There are also higher DSL speeds, but they are not advertised regularly and the cost/speed ratio is not much better.