The U.S. has fallen to 12th in global ranking of high-speed Internet connections. We now lag behind many other industrialized countries in Europe and Asia, according to a recent survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that shows Iceland overtaking longtime leader South Korea for the top spot.This is not news that U.S. businesses or Washington policy makers should shrug off lightly. This isn’t just about bewailing our inability to download music and videos quickly. Without investment in our communication networks, U.S. businesses will soon be at a significant competitive disadvantage in developing new products and services and in creating new markets. According to a story in today’s WSJ (subscription required to access) the FCC’s chairman has protested that the OECD’s rankings do “not tell the full story” because the low population density of the U.S. made comparisons with high-density countries like South Korea unfair. But Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — all of which ranked higher than the U.S. — have even lower population densities than the U.S. and yet have obviously surmounted that obstacle to wider broadband access. As recently as 2001, the U.S. ranked 4th in the OECD’s survey, but since that time governments in many of today’s top-ranked countries have aggressively promoted the next generation of broadband over fiber optics that will travel many times faster than DSL or cable. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, with its “unbundling” provisions, was meant to foster competition among Internet providers. But U.S. phone and cable companies have lobbied vigorously to roll back those requirement, claiming regulation is no longer necessary.Tell us what you think is the right approach to this problem. Should the U.S. government be investing heavily in the country’s communications infrastructure just as they would in a public utility like highways? Or is de-regulation of the telecommunications industry going to be sufficient incentive for the laying of fiber for a next-generation broadband?Tell us — and your legislators — what you think. Technology Industry