Internet and public investment in infrastructure

I've seen this graph in an interesting book by Jonathan Taplin (Move Fast and Break Things; highly recommend, btw) on how the big internet firms Google and Facebook essentially (but also Amazon) have become the new monopolies of our gilded age. He discusses mostly the effects on the entertainment business, but the implications are far-reaching of course. Below the share of fiber optics connections as a share of total broadband connections in OECD countries (Taplin uses this graph in the book).

Note that the US lags behind (I'm assuming things didn't change much since Dec. 2015). So here there would be a huge benefit from public investment in infrastructure. Not that I think this would happen any time soon.

Internet access and development

Purple countries indicate less than 50% of the population has access to the internet. Basically Africa, Central America, México, the Caribbean, and the Andean region of South America (plus Paraguay and the Guyanas), Asia (including of course India and China, but not South Korea) and the Middle East (with a few exceptions, like Saudi Arabia). So there is a belt around the middle with countries further South (the Southern Cone of South America, including Brazil and Australia) and further North (North America and Europe, including the East and Russia) that are fine. Understanding internet access provides an alternative way to look at development.

PS: The Wall Street Journal is really about Facebook trying to expand in places with low internet access.