Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the government

Why are Internet speeds and prices better in the Netherlands and the UK than in the United States? The government. Not government spending. The UK's administration hasn't invested a penny in broadband infrastructure, and most of the network in the Netherlands has been built with private capital. (The city government in Amsterdam took a minority stake in the fiber network there, but that's an investment that will pay dividends if the network is profitable -- and the private investors who own the majority share of the system plan to make sure that it will be.) The game-changer in these two European countries has been government regulators who have forced more competition in the market for broadband.