[1st-mile-nm] FCC Broadband Deployment Evaluation

[Carroll Cagle]

Re. Richard's posting on the FCC decision to evaluate broadband deployment
in the U.S. there are a few other points along those same lines in recent
days (aside from the long-standing relevant issue that what the FCC calls
"broadband" is anachronistically narrow).

Carroll


	1.	1/3 of Japan's broadband subscribers now 
use fiber to the home


http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Sta
tistics/pdf/070313_2.pdf

	2.	This page is directly accessible at
www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband

Over the past year, the number of broadband subscribers in the OECD
increased 26% from 157 million in December 2005 to 197 million in December
2006. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from
13.5 in December 2005 to 16.9 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants one year
later. The main highlights for 2006 are: 
.	European countries have continued their advance with high broadband
penetration rates. In December 2006, eight countries (Denmark, the
Netherlands, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland,  Finland, Norway and Sweden) led
the OECD in broadband penetration, each with at least 26 subscribers per 100
inhabitants.
.	Denmark and the Netherlands are the first two countries in the OECD
to surpass 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
.	The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year comes from
Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Ireland. Each country added more
than 5.8 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year.
.	Operators in several countries continue with their upgrades to
fibre. Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-building (FTTB)
subscriptions now comprise nearly 7% of all broadband connections in the
OECD and the percentage is growing. Korea and Japan each have more than 6
fibre-based broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
.	Japan leads the OECD in fibre connections directly to the home with
7.9 million fibre-to-the-home subscribers in December 2006. Fibre
subscribers alone in Japan outnumber total broadband subscribers in 23 of
the 30 OECD countries.
.	The total number of ADSL subscriptions continues to fall in Korea
and Japan as more users upgrade to fibre-based connections. 
.	DSL continues to be the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Cable
modem subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States.
.	The United States has the largest total number of broadband
subscribers in the OECD at 58.1 million. US broadband subscribers now
represent 29% of all broadband connections in the OECD.
.	Canada continues to lead the G7 group of industrialized countries in
broadband penetration
.	The breakdown of broadband technologies in December 2006 is as
follows:
- DSL : 62%
- Cable modem : 29%
- FTTH/FTTB : 7%
- Other (e.g. satellite, fixed wireless, powerline communication) : 2%


	3.	COMMISSIONER COPPS REITERATES CALL FOR A NATIONAL BROADBAND
STRATEGY TO ADDRESS AMERICA'S DROP IN BROADBAND RANKINGS

	In response to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and
Development's announcement today that the United States has fallen in its
country-by-country ranking of broadband penetration, Commissioner Michael J.
Copps issued the following statement:

"Every year brings more bad news as the United States slides farther down
the broadband rankings.  It's a national embarrassment and the only way to
change it is to develop a broadband strategy like every other industrialized
nation has already done.  These rankings aren't a beauty contest - they're
about our competitiveness as a country and creating economic opportunity for
all our people.  Bringing high-speed broadband to every corner of the
country is the central infrastructure challenge we face.  Always in the
past, our nation found ways to stay ahead of everyone else in building
infrastructure like turnpikes, railroads and highways.  Now, in broadband,
we're not even an also-ran."

- FCC -

-----Original Message-----
From: 1st-mile-nm-bounces at mailman.dcn.org
[mailto:1st-mile-nm-bounces at mailman.dcn.org] On Behalf Of rl at radlab.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 9:18 PM
To: 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
Subject: [1st-mile-nm] FCC Broadband Deployment Evaluation

Last week the FCC announced that it would undertake an evaluation of
broadband
deployment in the U.S., as a step towards setting broadband policy for the
future.
The FCC's Press Release follows, and is attached.
Richard
-------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:			NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
April 16, 2007				Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253
					Email: mark.wigfield at fcc.gov


FCC BEGINS INQUIRIES ON BROADBAND DATA AND DEPLOYMENT

Washington, D.C. ? The Federal Communications Commission today announces two
proceedings focused on evaluating broadband deployment.
The first is a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) under Section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 into whether broadband services are being
deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.  The second is
a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) exploring ways to collect information
the
Commission needs to set broadband policy in the future.

  Both actions recognize the critical importance of broadband services to
the
nation?s present and future prosperity.
The NOI is the fifth such inquiry conducted by the Commission under Section
706
of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which requires the Commission to
determine whether broadband services are being deployed to all Americans in
a
reasonable and timely fashion.  Among the questions the Commission asks in
the
NOI is how to define broadband in light of the rapid technological changes
occurring in the marketplace, including the development of higher speed
services and new broadband platforms.  The Commission will also focus on the
availability of broadband, including in rural and other hard-to-serve areas;
on
whether consumers are adopting new services; and on the level of competition
in
the marketplace.  The Commission asks what can be done to accelerate the
rollout of broadband services, and seeks comment on current investment
trends
in the industry.  The Commission also seeks comment on external data sources
that shed light on broadband prices and the extent to which consumers have a
choice of competing providers of broadband service in the United States,
ideally on a house-by-house and business-by-business basis, as well as
comparable data on speed, price, availability, and adoption in other
countries.

The NPRM seeks comment on whether to modify collection of speed tier
information
and how to improve the data collected about wireless broadband Internet
access
service.  The NPRM also asks how the Commission can best collect information
about subscribership to interconnected voice over Internet Protocol service,
or
VoIP.  Finally, the NPRM also seeks comment on how the Commission can
develop a
more accurate picture of current broadband deployment (including by
extrapolating from more accurate estimates of representative urban,
metropolitan, exurban, low-income, tribal, and rural areas), as well as
gather
information on price, other factors that affect consumer uptake of broadband
services, and international comparisons.

Action by the Commission, March 12, 2007, by Notice of Inquiry (FCC 07-21)
and
February 26, 2007, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 07-17).

Dockets:  07-45 (NOI); 07-38 (NPRM).

Wireline Competition Bureau Staff Contact for NOI:  Jeremy Miller at
202-418-1507, jeremy.miller at fcc.gov; for NPRM: Ellen Burton at 202-418-0958,
ellen.burton at fcc.gov.


-FCC-
News about the Federal Communications Commission can also be found
on the Commission?s web site www.fcc.gov.





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