I recently was sent an interesting study done by The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) ranking broadband access in OECD countries. The ITIF has created a broaband index based on OECD data on broadband household penetration rates, broadband speeds and prices. The US came out 12th in their rankings. This is a bit better than the ranking of 15th the OECD itself gives the US.
I found the differences in speed by country to be of note. The 5 countries with the highest average broadband speeds are: Japan 61 megabits; Korea 45 megabits; Finland 21 megabits; Sweden 18 megabits; and France with 17 megabits. The US is well down the list at 4.8 megabits. The good news is lots of work is going on to improve US broadband speeds, and over the next 5 years our speeds should increase substantially.
ITIF also has done a paper called The Case for a National Broadband Policy. In it they lay out why broadband is an essential infrastructure for business and consumers, and recommend the US create policies to increase broadband speeds and penetration rates.
Broadband fundamentally changes how online users interact with the Internet. They go online more often, spend more time online, and do more things online - they also tend to watch less TV. As broadband speeds increase so does the richness and intensity of web interactivity. See Pew Internet for more data on US broadband penetration and usage.
The growth of broadband has clearly helped spur the recent growth in small and personal businesses. As global and US broadband speeds increase, so will the opportunities for small business to leverage this infrastructure.
Very informative post. Thanks for this.
Posted by: myspace design | June 18, 2008 at 07:31 AM