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U.S. Still Fifteenth In Broadband Penetration
Though per-capita subscriber growth remains strong

Last year, the U.S. ranked fifteenth in penetration, thirteenth in average price per connection, and nineteenth in average advertised download speed, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The OECD just updated their broadband data portal, and as of December 2008, The United States jumped from fifteenth in penetration....to fifteenth in penetration (connections per 100 citizens). Though the news isn't all bad.

As of September 2008, the U.S. was seventeenth when it comes to the average monthly cost of a broadband subscription. Despite DOCSIS 3.0 and Verizon FiOS, the OECD data still places us nineteenth in terms of average advertised download speed, which of course doesn't reflect actual speeds delivered.

On the plus side, the United States is seventh in terms of per-capita subscriber growth, and the largest broadband nation tracked by the OECD with 80 million subscribers -- 30% of all OECD-tracked connections. In a separate report, the OECD also proclaims that because of broadband stimulus funds, the US will emerge from the recession at a quicker pace.

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A smattering of additional interesting data points:

•The average advertised speed is 9.6 Mbps for DSL, 14.9 Mbps for cable and 65.3 Mbps for fiber.

•Globally, advertised DSL speeds have grown an average of 22% per year since 2005.

•Globally, advertised cable speeds have grown an average of 30% per year since 2005.

The percentage of offers with explicit data limits/bit caps is declining, with only 36% of observed plans now having an explicit data cap.

•In countries with bit caps, users pay an average of USD 0.02 per additional megabyte on DSL and USD 0.03 on cable networks.

•DSL subscribers pay an average of $40 per month for broadband service. The lowest average price for DSL service was in Japan at $26 per month.

•Cable subscribers pay an average of $45 per month for broadband service. France has the least-expensive average price at $22 per month.

•The average price of one megabit per second of broadband capacity for consumers is $12.

Carriers (and the lobbyists, investors and employees paid to love them) often criticize OECD rankings because the data highlights competitive shortcomings. Still, it's some of the best data available, which isn't saying much. Some of the numbers are still in part based on FCC data, which has a long history of being, well, very wrong. It's so wrong, the GAO and FCC Commissioners themselves have admitted as much.

Were Uncle Sam to actually go into the field and check availability (a novel concept), the actual penetration numbers could be better, but they very easily could be substantially worse. For years, carriers have fought data disclosure efforts tooth and nail because highlighting penetration and competitive shortcomings would result in efforts to increase competition, and competition means lower revenues.

After more than a decade of fudged numbers, Uncle Sam just set aside $300 million to map broadband penetration for this country for the first time. However, consumer advocates are already worrying that the mapping process may be hijacked by organizations that don't have consumer best interests at heart. The result may be a $300 million bill for data that still leaves us collectively clueless in terms of broadband penetration.

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FFH5
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join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

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FFH5

Premium Member

OECD still using a flawed counting method

»www.oecd.org/document/29 ··· ,00.html
4a. Broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants in OECD countries
- Source: Data compiled from original and/or official Sources by Secretariat
- Current status: 2003 Provisional Data available from the Communications Outlook.
- Definition: The number of Internet subscribers is the number of active registered Internet accounts including all fixed network Broadband access technologies: Digital Subscriber Line services, Cable Modem services, Satellite broadband Internet, Fibre-to-the-home Internet access, Ethernet LANs, Fixed wireless subscribers. This excludes 3G subscribers
The "Subscribers per 100 inhabitants" metric has a statistical flaw. It does NOT take into account the size of the average household in each of the countries. Some of the countries at the top are there because they have smaller average number of people at a subscriber address. And some at the bottom have fewer subscribers, but because of larger average household size have more people with broadband access.

A better measure would be number of people with broadband access and not subscribers with broadband access(which measures broadband lines and not people).


In other words, countries with large household sizes are undercounted and countries with small household sizes are overcounted.