FCC Releases Census Tract-level Broadband Data

On Feb 12, the Federal Communications Commission released the first High-Speed Services for Internet Access report to be based on the new census tract-based Form 477 data collection requirements. For the first time, this report summarizes information about fixed-location Internet access connections in 3,232 counties and 66,287 census tracts and in 72 combinations of upload and download advertised transmission speeds. Additionally, the report summarizes information about subscribers with full Internet access at transmission speeds above 200 Mbps as part of their mobile wireless service package.

High-speed Internet access connections to homes and businesses over fixed-location technologies increased by 10% during 2008, to 77 million. By contrast, the annual rate of increase was 17% during 2007.

At year-end 2008, 25 million mobile wireless service subscribers had mobile devices (such as laptops and smartphones) with high-speed data plans for full Internet access. These subscribers are a subset of the 86 million subscribers whose mobile device was capable of transmitting information at speeds above 200 Mbps, including subscribers who purchased only a voice service plan for the handset and subscribers whose data service included only customized-for-mobile content.

Reported connections for the most widely adopted fixed-location technologies, cable modem and adsl, increased by 14% and 3%, respectively, during 2008, to 41 million cable modem connections and 30 million adsl connections, with the cable modem increase being partly due to more comprehensive reporting by small cable systems. A 56% increase in total FTTP connections, to 3 million, was the largest rate of increase among fixed-location technologies.