U.S. Broadband Speed Still Lagging – SpeedMatters.org

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:08:57 +0000

SpeedMatters.org recently concluded a survey exemplifying the embarrassing brick wall (likely agreed upon by telco and cable monopolists and duopolists) keeping out broadband Internet speeds at low levels relative to the rest of the world. At 2.3Mbps average download speeds, last mile connectivity has only inched up in the past year, according to the report (PDF), and it would be decades before we experienced the speeds and functionality experienced by internet users in Japan, who connect at over 60Mbps.

Evident in the unscientific studies is the sharp increase in business districts in which connectivity is often an expensive T1 connection, as opposed to publicly available high speed broadband (which here in LA, is mainly limited to AT&T and Comcast, although competitors such as Speakeasy are able to offer better service at slightly higher rates). California ranks 25th in SpeedMatters’ survey of median download speeds. how does your state rank?

I’ve documented the U.S.’s position on broadband ubiquity and connectivity many times, as well as it’s position in relation to other OECD countries throughout here and here. I first profiled SpeedMatters.org (a project of the Communications Workers of America union) here and encourage everyone to participate in their call to action:

The test results demonstrate the critical need for the U.S. to adopt a comprehensive national broadband policy. As a first step, the Senate should pass the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492), a crucial piece of legislation that will help our nation determine which parts of the country have high-speed access and which do not. The bill would also provide funding to states to increase broadband deployment and adoption.

Write your Senators and tell them you strongly support this bill:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/s1492/igukkd5rz75n78t6?

The House of Representatives passed similar legislation last fall. Itâ€s long past time for the Senate to act. The Broadband Data Improvement Act will provide the research and the funding to help make sure every American has affordable, high-speed Internet access. With an already struggling economy, we canâ€t afford to continue falling behind in high speed broadband.

We need your help in the critical effort. Write a note to your Senators now:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/s1492/igukkd5rz75n78t6?

Latest Broadband Penetration Data: Average Speed Up, Coverage Flat

Andy Sternberg — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:42:47 +0000

The OECD Broadband Portal has been updated to reflect data as of June 2007. The enhanced and increased data makes the U.S. look a little better but U.S. high speed internet penetration remains in the bottom quarter of the 32 OECD countries, as it has since it’s ranking dropped 25 percent earlier this year. The U.S. is on par with the OECD average, however, when broadband penetration is calculated in terms of landmass populated by 50% of the population, perhaps a more fair measure, considering the U.S. does 30% of broadband subscribers in the OECD survey, but also covers a vast and sparsely populated area.

Take a look at the main press release re: these latest penetration data. Of note:

The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Luxembourg. Each country added more than 5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year…. Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea and Norway and Iceland lead the OECD in broadband penetration, each with over 29 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Full press release below:

OECD Broadband Statistics to June 2007

This release of the June 2007 data on OECD broadband subscribers coincides with the launch of a broadband statistics portal (http://www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband) which will contain additional indicators from November 2007. These include: broadband prices; advertised broadband speeds; household broadband usage, the number of households with a home computer; and the number of businesses with broadband connections and company websites.

OECD broadband statistics (June 2007)

Over the past year, the number of broadband subscribers in the OECD increased 24% from 178 million in June 2006 to 221 million subscribers in June 2007. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from 15.1 in June 2006 to 18.8 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants one year later.

* Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea and Norway and Iceland lead the OECD in broadband penetration, each with over 29 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

* The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Luxembourg. Each country added more than 5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year.

* Operators in several countries continue upgrading subscriber lines to fibre. Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) subscriptions now comprise 8% of all broadband connections in the OECD, up from 7% a year ago, and the percentage is growing. Fiber connections account for 36% of all Japanese broadband subscriptions and 31% in Korea.

* The United States is the largest broadband market in the OECD with 66.2 million subscribers. US broadband subscribers represent 30% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

OECD broadband pricing (October 2007) â€“ all given in USD using purchasing power parities (PPP)

* The average price of a month broadband subscription in the OECD is USD 49. On average, fibre to the home/building is the most expensive (USD 51) and fixed wireless the cheapest (USD 33)

* The average price per advertised Mbit/s of connectivity in the OECD is USD 18. Japan, France, Sweden, Korea and Finland have the least expensive offers per Mbit/s
o Japan: USD 0.13
o France : USD 0.33
o Sweden: USD 0.35
o Korea: USD 0.38
o Finland: USD 0.42

* Fibre connections are nearly 5 times less expensive per Mbit/s than DSL, cable or wireless.
o DSL: USD 19.21
o Cable: USD 18.96
o Fiber to the home/building: 3.75
o Wireless: USD 18.69

OECD broadband speeds

* The average advertised download speed in the OECD is 13.7 Mbit/s.

* The fastest average advertised download speeds are in Japan (93 Mbit/s), France (44 Mbit/s), Korea (43 Mbit/s) and Sweden (21 Mbit/s)

* Japan has the fastest residential download speed available in the OECD at 1 Gbit/s ( 1 Gbit/s = 1000 Mbit/s)

* Fibre-to-the-home advertised download speeds in the OECD average 77.1 Mbit/s, much higher than DSL (9.0 Mbit/s), cable (8.6 Mbit/s) or fixed wireless (1.8 Mbit/s).

* Advertised upload speeds on fibre connections are more than 36 times faster than average advertised upload speeds on DSL, cable or wireless networks.
o Fibre-to-the-home/building: 58.6 Mbit/s
o DSL: 1.6 Mbit/s
o Cable: 0.7 Mbit/s
o Fixed wireless: 0.7 Mbit/s

OECD broadband bit/data caps

* Explicit bit/data caps are imposed on broadband connections in 20 of the 30 OECD countries.

* There we no bitcaps among surveyed firms in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States

* All surveyed offers had bitcaps in Australia (48), Belgium (10), Canada (13) and New Zealand (33)

* The average bit cap size across offers with caps is 21 gigbytes (GB) of traffic per month

* Once a user reaches the monthly bit cap, the ISP reduces download speeds in 29% of the offers to an average speed of 82 kbit/s.

* In the remaining 71% of offers, once a user reaches the monthly bit cap they pay an average of USD 0.03 per additional MB (USD 34 per additional GB) until the end of the month

cable – Andy Sternberg

U.S. Broadband Speed Still Lagging – SpeedMatters.org

Latest Broadband Penetration Data: Average Speed Up, Coverage Flat