New Report Examines Broadband Rankings
Apr 25, 2007
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), one of Tech Policy Summit's 2007 partners, has issued a new report called "Assessing Broadband in America." In the report, authored by Daniel Correa, ITIF compares the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) semiannual rankings of broadband penetration with its own rankings.
According to OECD, as of December 2006, the United States ranks 15th globally in broadband penetration, despite having the largest total number of broadband subscribers at 58.1 million. Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Korea and Switzerland take the top five spots on OECD's list.
ITIF's report, however, expands upon the methodology used in OECD's rankings to include other factors such as pricing, speed and capacity. The result is a new ranking in which the United States moves up a bit to the 12th spot and the top five consist of Korea, Japan (OECD's # 14), Iceland, Finland (OECD's # 7) and the Netherlands.
While the difference between the two rankings is intriguing, in either case, the U.S. isn't in the top spot where some in this country believe it should be (whether or not rankings matter at all is one of the topics ITIF addresses).
How can the U.S. increase its ranking? According to ITIF, it will take a multi-faceted approach that includes - among other steps - Congress mandating tax exemptions and incentives for broadband providers and the Federal Communications Commission revising its broadband standards and improving collection of data on broadband subscribers. View the entire report here.
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