Not Quite Right

Well, based on population-density data and the OECD Broadband Rankings, I've established that we are being beaten by no fewer than three countries that have dramatically lower PD's than we do, and by another one that has the same PD as NZ. Those countries? Finland, ranking in at number seven on the OECD list, has a PD of 15, which is the same as ours. Canada, number six, has a PD of three, or one-fifth that of NZ. Australia, oh agony, is 17 and two. However, the ultimate shame is Iceland, which with a population density equal to Australia's two - or less than one-seventh of NZ's - is ranked number four on the OECD chart.

Canada in particular, as the second-largest nation on earth, is the real shocker. Their infrastructure extends to nearly every town, village and hamlet in the country, even ones that have a population of a whole 20,000 and spend six months a year in the dark because they're so far north. We have nothing on places like that, yet our low (and it is, relatively speaking) population density is held up as an unbreakable barrier. Obviously that's bullshit, when countries of similar geography (Iceland) but much, much lower levels of population can manage it.