While it's true that last mile bandwidth alone I not the whole answer, I think
we can safely say that Craig's idea that we need decades to have broadband
adequate for TV deployed, even HDTV, is a tad overstated. As this pub states,
already today, 98 percent of the country has access to broadband more than
adequate for Internet TV.
Bert
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http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/national-broadband-map-has-helped-chart-broadband-evolution
Mon, March 23, 2015 by Anne Neville, Director, State Broadband Initiative
. . .
The most significant finding from the latest data, announced by President Obama
earlier today, is that the United States has met the President's goal of
ensuring 98 percent of the country has access to wireless broadband at a speed
of at least 6 megabits per second (Mbps) down/1.5 Mbps up. Other key findings
from the June 30, 2014 dataset include:
* As we have seen in every data release since our first in February 2011,
broadband speeds continue to increase. The rate at which we are seeing speeds
increase, however, is slower at every national speed threshold that we track.
* At lower speeds, Internet access is widely available across both rural and
urban areas. The latest data shows that 99 percent of the country has access to
advertised broadband speeds at 10 megabits per second (Mbps) through either
wired or wireless services, and 93 percent have access to this speed through
wired service alone.
* Nearly 85 percent of the country has access to wired broadband at a speed of
25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up, which is the Federal Communications Commission's
(FCC) new benchmark level for broadband speeds. Cable provides 82.69 percent of
the U.S. population with speeds of 25 Mbps or more, while fiber to the premises
serves about one in four Americans (24.20 percent) at that speed.
* However, there is still a big gap between urban and rural areas when it comes
to access to broadband at 25 Mbps. The latest data finds that only 55 percent
of those in rural communities, and 32 percent of tribal lands have access to
broadband at 25 mbps compared with 94 percent of urban areas.
. . .
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