-- Fiber broadband in Korea, Sweden and until recently Japan, only runs as far as the basement of apartment buildings, or street-corner switch boxes. By contrast, Verizon's FiOS runs fiber optic cable right into the customer's home.

Another factor relates to laws governing how phone, Internet and cable TV services can be sold. It's resulted in a curious competitive situation in some markets, and dominance by Comcast, Verizon and other large telcos in the United States:

-- Most big countries enforce what's called "unbunding," which forces rival phone companies to share their lines and facilities. But unbundling gives each ISP less incentive to upgrade their networks, since they'll have to share with their worst competitors.

-- The Federal Communications Commission enforced unbundling until 2003, when the FCC decided that encouraging competition was the best way to serve customers.

-- The downside of the current situation is it creates an oligopoly of a few major carriers, who can then charge higher rates.