H T T

U.S. BROADBAND IS terrible ” has become a familiar meme. An article in Scien-tific American last year fret-ted, “our creaky Internet makes it harder for U.S. entrepreneurs to compete in world markets.”4 Given the growing importance of broadband Internet connections to our work, civil society, and entertainment, a poor broadband infrastructure would in-deed be cause for concern. As it turns out, however, much of this concern is misplaced. It arises from a combination of the focusing on the wrong metrics, a misguided interpretation of consumer prefer-ences, and a popular obsession with rankings. These misperception