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Cisco CEO calls for U.S. national broadband policy

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers called on political leaders to develop a U.S. national broadband policy to help the United States close the digital divide and compete more effectively on a global scale. Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers moments ago called on political leaders to develop a national broadband policy, which would help the United States close the digital divide and compete more effectively on a global scale. He also called on the United States to change its definition of broadband to 100Mbps connections.

What happens when telecom companies write state legislation?

Beware of legislation promising “competition.” A bill passed by the General Assembly last year that was intended to jump-start competition in the cable TV industry has had the unforeseen consequence of costing the state and local governments across North Carolina millions of dollars in lost revenue. And six months after the law went into effect, that promised competition is nowhere in sight.

Free Press refutes criticisms of OECD data

On April 23, 2007, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released their latest semi-annual broadband penetration rankings, which revealed that the United States had fallen to 15th place among the 30-member nations, down from 12th place just six months earlier. This slide continued a downward trend for America, dropping from a high of fourth place in 2001. The OECD data showed other problems for America: Annual U.S. penetration growth ranked 20th, and semi-annual growth was 24th out of 30 countries.

Scott Wallsten: Everything You Hear about Broadband in the U.S. is Wrong

The supposedly poor state of broadband in the U.S. relative to other OECD countries has generated tremendous consternation. Conventional wisdom about these rankings, however, is wrong and should not be used as a basis for making policies. First, the OECD data are unreliable and misleading. More careful analyses show that the U.S. actually compares quite favorably to the rest of the world in terms of household broadband penetration. Second, comparisons of actual—as opposed to advertised—bandwidth across countries reveal that broadband speeds in the U.S. are similar to most other advanced countries.

The Effects of Broadband Deployment on Output and Employment

High-speed internet access has developed rapidly in the last decade and is increasingly viewed as essential infrastructure for our global information economy. For example, as recently as mid-2000 there were only 4.1 million broadband lines in the United States and only 3.2 million of these were residential lines. Thus, in mid-2000 less than one household in thirty could access the internet at a download speed of 200 kbps or greater. Six years later, the number of broadband lines, excluding mobile wireless connections, had soared to more than 53.5 million, 49 million of which were in residences. Residential penetration had therefore risen to nearly 50 percent by the middle of last year. (If mobile wireless connections are included, total U.S. broadband lines had risen to more than 64.6 million lines.)

Scott Wallsten: Towards Effective U.S. Broadband Policies

OECD statistics show that the U.S. has fewer broadband subscribers per capita than some other countries, causing great consternation. This concern has contributed to growing calls for government intervention including open access regulations much like the failed unbundling regime that the U.S. recently ended.

FTTH Gives Homeowners a Raise

If you’ve recently placed your home on the market and are one of the lucky few in this country to be served with fiber to the home (FTTH), then you may have a little bonus headed your way. As FTTH deployments continue to escalate across the land, there is growing evidence that points to an increase in home valuation as a result of this ultra-broadband amenity. In many cases, real estate appraisals and selling prices for homes connected with fiber are outpacing their copper-served brethren. If you fall into this category and you didn’t factor an optical fiber connection into the selling price of your home, then you may need to have a talk with your realtor.