Failure to regulate?

I've just watched some guy (Walter Mossberg) on Charlie Rose talking about broadband. He pointed out that the failure to properly regulate has lead to crappy broadband service in the United States.

I'd just like to mention this--he gave the example of Japan, where there was active definition of the market and regulations which created a competitive market of fast, high speed (I think he said it was up to 8 megabits per second?) broadband service for about $22 per month.

A risk of lack of regulation!