danielwang wrote:We should all go Japan-style and use the Internet for content distribution. Ethernet ports on every TV and stereo. Listen to commercial free webcast radio and watch The AMV Channel. Ditch HBO and Cinemax.
North America is a lot
bigger than Japan, and that makes a big difference. You need more cellular towers and a Hell of a lot more cable (whether it's copper, glass, or whatever) to cover the same number of people. It wouldn't physically impossible for us to get the same Internet coverage in North America that they have in Japan, but it would be a lot more difficult. There are also a lot of economic issues that would need to be sorted out, not to mention that powerful people in North America don't
want the Internet to flourish until after they succeed in making it a one-way communications medium.