A recent article in the Washington Post describes the enormous advantage in performance enjoyed by Japanese Internet users, who transmit and receive information over the 'net in their homes up to 17 times as fast as the best US services. No, it didn't just arise from the unseen hand of the market. It's all part of a long-term plan for linking up the whole country.

The article notes that indifference to the 'net by the Bush administration is a factor in the development lag. Policies of the administration favor the go-slow, don't-rock-the-boat approach of large US cable and phone companies. In Japan, key regulations have fostered the rise of innovative technologies that deliver world-leading Internet access to most urban Japanese and an expanding portion of the countryside.

In my own case, I recently listened in on the birth of my grandson in Tokyo via a high-speed hookup in the delivery room of a local birthing center. The hospital has a roof to basement, wireless broadband system through which my son connected me and other family members at various locations. We empathized with New Mom's pain and reveled in the joy of baby's first cry in real time with perfect sound and not a single dropped Kampai!

This experience confirms my belief that "net neutrality" in which service providers cannot give preference to selected content traveling on their networks is essential. Had the large providers and their desired multi-tier pricing existed last month, the ads for unneeded enhancements to body parts I don't have would have been coming in loud and clear, while we waited for the news of the birth after the fact.