Broadband Deployment in the US – Do Percentage Points Matter?

Since last year, when President Obama stated that broadband deployment would be a big item on his agenda, we have all seen lots of articles, all showing us how we are not anywhere near number one in terms of speed or penetration.

The traditional companies, phone and cable, tell us that the problem is that last mile, and that when population density goes down, so does their interest in providing those sparsely inhabited areas great service.

A story from ComputerWorld tells us that these things might not even be important. (Yes, I thought this was a bit much also.) After that bomb, the story continues to say that what is not important is the ranking, but the service to the nation is very important.

The piece continues with the idea that, as some might think, this is not a zero-sum game. Bringing speedy internet service to West Fencepost, Wyoming is not taking away from the speed enjoyed by people on 5th Ave. in New York.  If the system is improved in the sparse locales, it means that the major areas will also be improved. It also means that the number of redundancies goes up, which is always a great thing.

In December, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked the U.S. 15th among its 30 member nations in broadband adoption per capita. But the OECD statistics might give a better picture if they reflected broadband adoption for households, because families often share a connection and the OECD numbers have largely ignored broadband on smartphones and other wireless devices, said panelists at a broadband forum hosted by the Free State Foundation, a conservative think tank.

And the statistics may not matter much, said David Gross, former coordinator of international communications and information policy at the U.S Department of State. Gross, who worked in former President George W. Bush’s administration, called the OECD statistics “deeply flawed,” but also acknowledged that the organization is working to improve its broadband reports.

“It is not a zero-sum game,” Gross said. “Rather, we all benefit from the more who are on it. The more people in the world who have broadband, who have access to the Internet, the better it is for all who already have it.”

Still, the U.S. can do much to improve its broadband adoption rate, said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech-focused think tank. If the OECD measured household adoption, instead of per capita adoption, the U.S. would still rank only 12th, he said.

“The reality is, this is a complex issue,” Atkinson said. “In some ways we’re ahead, and in some ways we’re behind.”

After saying that we are not leading in many areas, it is brought to the reader’s attention that we are the only nation that has fiber-optic service outside the most urban areas. (Big Atta boy to Verizon and any cable companies deploying fiber)

The U.S. leads the world in broadband to schools, he said, and it’s the only country now deploying fiber-based broadband outside urban areas. Part of the problem in the U.S., however, is with demand. Of 21 OECD countries with statistics available, the U.S. ranks 11th in PC ownership, Atkinson said, and without PCs, people aren’t going to get wired broadband.

The debate over U.S. broadband roll out has been a huge public policy issue in recent years. Groups like Free Press and some U.S. lawmakers have argued that statistics showing the U.S. lagging in key broadband metrics show the need for new legislation and regulation to spur broadband deployment.

A huge economic stimulus package passed by the U.S. Congress early this year included $7.2 billion for broadband deployment and two agencies given the money are working on rules for distributing the funds.

Distributing the funds will be something that takes longer than the actual development funded, if the recent progress by our Congress is any indication. It will happen, though, eventually giving us a nation that is well connected in all but the most remote areas.

The U.S. will also be surging ahead in other areas with the continued deployment of WiMAX and upcoming similar systems. Fiber is creeping everywhere, and if the Congress adopts the proposal that fiber should be buried when road repairs on the interstates are done, we will bring the last mile problem under control.

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if you don’t currently have broadband, and are stuck with dial-up (yecch!), try Opera 10, and turn on turbo mode – it makes it almost bearable.

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