A recent article in the Washington Post entitled "Japan's Warp Speed Ride to Internet Future" compares the broadband bandwidth capacity of the Internet in the US as compared to other countries such as Korea and Japan.
Japan has invested heavily in upgrading its Internet infrastructure and users experience 160 megabits per second, as compared to 8 megabits per second here in the US on Cable or DSL . This increased speed opens up a new world of applications including real-time HD teleconferencing and tele-medicine.
Our Internet policy needs to be updated to allow for more competition and incentives to improve our Internet infrastructure.