Let's not be too cavalier in saying that it's cheaper in other countries. In France, billions of dollars of investment by France Telecom came straight out of the taxpayers' pockets. Those taxpayers are also supporting billions in FT pensions as well. New players like Iliad are able to operate cheaply because they rely on that very expensive infrastructure. A limited set of urban consumers are seeing a smaller monthly bill, but just look at the tax rates and unemployment to understand the trade-off. It ain't cheap. In South Korea and Japan (also commonly used as examples), they are working with population densities of 10x ours. A mile of fiber has a baseline ROI 10x higher than the US. Even if it's not perfectly linear, the economics are quite different. Simply keeping up with the Joneses is a foolish motivation. We should not wish the 'net to be a utility. The utilities are the most risk-averse, inefficient and regulated part of our economy. I live in Cali, with the rolling blackouts and price spikes and bad service that comes from PG&E. The Internet deserves a lot better, and it will be better if we let it develop on its own terms.