RSSHow does the US really rank in broadband access?
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published March 24, 2008, 10:39 AM
In numbers that differ markedly from those cited by the US government and other sources, the European Commission is reporting that eight European countries all have higher household broadband deployment rates than in the US.
Although studies by the UK-based Point Topic also point to higher deployment for some countries in Europe, the deployment rates cited by the EC are much lower across the board.
The EC's "13th Progress Report on the Single Telecoms Market" cites Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden as having broadband penetration of more than 30%, as of the end of 2007. The US deployment rate is only 22.1%, the report contends, smaller than that of the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
In contrast, according to Point Topic, 52.72% of all US households had a broadband connection as of the first quarter of 2007.
US-based Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has also found US penetration rates to be "consistently somewhere in the mid-fifties range," said Bruce Leichtman, company president and principal analyst, during an interview with BetaNews. "When I first saw the EC's report, I thought there must have been a misprint."
In a written statement about the report, the EC appeared to be trying to use its findings as evidence that attempts to increase competition in the telecom market are bearing positive results.
But according to Point Topic's research, which also incorporates other continents, South Korea actually has the highest broadband deployment rate of all countries in the world, at 89.38%, followed by Hong Kong (87.14%); Monaco (82.92%); and Iceland (75.76%). The Netherlands landed in sixth place (73.27%), Denmark in seventh (72.99%), and Norway in tenth (71.35%).
But the other northern European countries ranking high in the EC's report did not make it on to Point Topic's top ten list.
With its own penetration rate of 52.77%, the US moved up to 24th place in Point Topic's standings, nudging Australia back to 25th place.
"I don't know how the EC got its numbers," Leichtman noted. The analyst conjectured that if the EC used "a low speed level" of 256 Kbps, for example, as its definition of broadband, "this could apply to just about everyone." He added that LRG uses statistics from both broadband providers and consumer surveys to arrive at its percentages around US broadband penetration, and has also used figures from the Federal Communications Commission for some reports.
"But you have to be really careful with the FCC's numbers," Leichtman cautioned. For one thing, the FCC does not provide percentages. Also, he said, the FCC numbers sometimes mix together consumer broadband access with business broadband or mobile wireless penetration.
Separately this week, the FCC voted to replace its previous methodology for measuring how widely broadband is deployed in the US.
Although the full scope of the changes to be made isn't available yet, the FCC will replace 200 Kbps as its low-end speed for broadband with 768 Kbps, the entry-level speed offered by DSL providers such as Verizon.
Umm it's ok saying broadband prenetration but can we have these results with a customer "quality broadband" I think all these figures would be :-)
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|The really sad fact is that the so called socialist EU countries have more ISP competition than we do here in the US.
I've been waiting for Verizon FIOS to come to my Boston neighborhood for over a year now.The only choice I have is Comcast or Comcast.. err wait there's DSL, I guess that counts as high speed for a few minutes every week.
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|DSl is more stable, as far as speeds go than cable, so I don't know where you got that last bit...
Cable is shared from the box tot he rest of the folks in your neighborhood. DSL comes from the phone company directly to you over your phone line...shared with no-one else.
Cable will always have some form of traffic management to limit those using more than their "share" (Get it? Shared bandwidth?). I have yet to here of anything like the Comcast BT throttling on any DSL network.
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|obviously you havent heard how comcast is moving their entire network to fiber like FIoS.
Yes cable is shared in the neighborhood, hence why it uses much bigger pipes to the central office. If they didnt, OnDemand would never work either if all your neighbors watched at the same time. DSL you have everyone and their brother connecting to the same central office for the area in addition to the distance limitation and degredation of speed.
My comcast cable has been fiber to the curb for the past 10 years and i get my full speed no matter what time of day I am online. blasting 16 mbit down with thousands of BT connections.
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|My speed tests consistently show comcast coming in around 3.5k (although I'm subscribed to 5k) while verizon dsl's 3k plan comes in around 1.5 and rarely if ever breaks 2k. So despite all that sharing of bandwidth, I'm getting faster and more consistent speeds for the money from comcast. It's just unfortunate that in areas where RCN offers cable with Verizon FIOS available, Comcast is about 30% cheaper to residents.
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|Asian countries can afford ubiquitous broadband because American companies are gleefully handing them our prosperity. Europe achieves it through socialism.
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|That's just not true. There's a pretty dynamic market with a lot of competition between ISP companies, here, in Europe.
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|Oh get over it. Hearing people talking about American companies outsourcing and buying from China etc. etc. gets me so heated. You want to know why? Because many Americans are downright slothful and lazy and want everything handed to them on a platter. They'd rather jump on welfare than go to Wendy's and work for 5.75 or whatever they pay....that's why the Mexicans/foreign so and so/etc. can come here and 'be handed prosperity'. If Americans were willing to actually work for their money, companies wouldn't sell their 'work' to foreign countries. Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone...I know some people work really hard for their money here. All I'm saying is, Americans tend to bite the hands that feed them so naturally, companies (that exist for profit and to make money) will naturally find a way to create goods for as little as possible to make their profit margins huge.
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|It is immoral of you to have people do what you are unwilling to do yourself.
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|What has this got to do with anything?
He was not talking about himself, and from the sounds of it, he'd do whatever needed to be done.
But feel free to pass judgment on people you don't know at all. That's entirely moral, right?
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|I for one wonder what will happen when my(CRAP) ISP which I pay $49.95 for PPPOE @ Best offer, = 128 kbps to max 700(from 11:30PM till 5:00AM) kbps, finds they have to raise there speeds to 768 kbps to be called Hi Speed. It really would be nice if the AVG Thru put was the rating not the MAX. one area 23 miles away, different ISP Provider gives 768kbps to 1.2 mbps @ $23.95, and they tell me they are not allowed to service my area, since "Sprint" has my area.
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|Man people complain about Comcast but in my little Texas town I'd LOVE some comcast action. I'm sick of my crappy wireless service that only slightly better then my old Sat. service.
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|makes no difference as to what the e.u. has.
supposedly, broadband is supposed to become cheaper in the u.s. after a service provider reaches a certain percentage of saturating an area with broadband, per the fcc.
instead of the distraction posed by this article, we should focus on the u.s. and those little details that are being covered up by the u.s. service providers for the purposes of profiteering and cheating the american public.
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|Lol, fun the see the US'ers not being able to accept a bit of truth. Visit Europe some time, you might be suprised :)
In all seriousness, before you get "offended" check the population density of eg. Norway and compare their penetration rate to yours...
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|Compare it to the population density of Montana.
Funny that, huh?
Europe? Been there, done that. Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia (before it split)...
Lots of rural areas there as well, but then, these weren't at the top of the list, were they?
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|My foot. Just visit Washington DC area. Broadband rate is 99%, which is same as Norway!!!
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|I put the EC's Uselessness Index at approximately 97.3%.
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|Hey, in the Faroe Islands 99.6% of all households have access to broadband :P
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|"Monaco (82.92%)"
I'm shocked that's not 100%.
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|LMAO...
Stupid statistics.
70%+ of an area that covers less ground than the state of Rhode Island is meaningless when compared to an area the size of the US.
They need to make this rural vs. urban at the very least.
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|"70%+ of an area that covers less ground than the state of Rhode Island is meaningless when compared to an area the size of the US."
Thats exactly what I was thinking when I was ready the article.
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|or factor in population density or something
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|Only if you look at it from the point of view of the smaller country having the same resources.
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|Not really. Total number of people, rural vs. urban, all of that should be taken into account.
75% of 4 is 3.
75% of 4.6 billion is ~3.4 billion.
Percentages mean nothing.
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