Not to defend the US but an interesting way to look at the broadband problem:

South Korea: total road network: 102,062 km, Population: 48,379,392 ~475 people per km of road. GDP - per capita: $27,100 (2008 est.)

Japan: total road network: 1,196,999 km Population: 127,288,416 ~106 people per km of road. GDP - per capita: $35,300

United States: total road network: 6,433,272km (2004); Population: 303,824,640 ~47 people per km of road. GDP - per capita: $48,000

Data from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

PS: I still think our network is pathetic.

from your data, it seems that the denser the road is, the lower the GDP is

but of course, only 3 data points, past data don't ensure future and it's only correlation, not causation

I think it's more about the correlation between population density and the issue of "last mile" in the broadband network. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile

I there is also a content-density issue.

Japanese and Korean Internet users will access a lot of local content... Places like Germany will access a moderate amount of local content.... Places like Australia will be largely accessing foreign content.

So Internet is bound to be more expensive in Australia. The last mile is expensive for density reasons, and most of this traffic needs to be trucked over large inter-continental cables. In high-pop, high-local-content areas the costs are bound to be considerably less.

The US is an anomaly - but they are probably in a unique circumstance where they also serve/transport a lot of foreign content.

Japan already has 1Gbps: http://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/kddi-to-l...

And only $65/month.

"Availability of such high-speed connections has allowed Korea to emerge as a leader in the MMO and online gaming industries."

What came first, the faster Internet connections (chicken), or the emergence as a leader in the MMO and online gaming industries (egg)?

I've always been under the impression that the popularity of gaming (everything from Starcraft to CS to MMOs) in Korea has helped drive faster and faster Internet connections in Korea. If there's any reliable evidence to suggest either way, I'd love to hear it.

I love how 3 year plans are always in their first year.

I would like US internet to at least be somewhat comparable in major cities such as Los Angeles, Bay Area, New York, Chicago, etc. Overall, the monopoly that the current networks have has forced our networking into an embarrassing state.