Welcome to the Banana Republic

The exchanges are down 2%. Congress is debating spending $700bn on a bail out plan for fat cats. The housing market is still in the tank. And now this —

By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
September 26, 2008 06:18 PM

China has overtaken the United States as having the largest number of broadband lines in the world, a market research firm said Friday.

As of the end of August, the U.S. and China each had about 78 million high-speed lines, British researcher Point Topic said. But with the number of Chinese lines increasing at twice the rate of the U.S., China has since taken the crown.

“This is a major milestone for China,” Oliver Johnson, chief executive of Point Topic, said in a statement. “Launching people into space is spectacular, but having the biggest broadband market down here on earth means a lot more for building a modern, high-tech economy.”

China Thursday night launched three astronauts into space. China’s third manned space mission in five years is expected to include the country’s first attempt at a spacewalk, The New York Times reported.

When broadband use first surged in China, experts predicted the country would overtake the United States in 2006. However, growth in China leveled off, while the U.S. saw a speed up in the number of broadband lines, Point Topic said. Broadband grew in parallel for 18 months until the first quarter of this year, when China took a leap forward.

Thanks to the mismanagement in Congress, The FCC and coercion by CongressCritters at the trough of the Big Corps the expansion of broadband penetration in this country has stalled. We are so far in the hole now from a year ago, we would have to have a miracle to catch up. With the pending business downturn I suspect that this situation to get worse not better.

Linky.
HT: saschameinrath