Report: US providers' broadband ambitions still unfulfilled

A comprehensive report based on research conducted by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information finds that US service providers have ambitious broadband plans, but still have a significant way to go before those plans are realized.

The 176-page report -- titled “Broadband in America 2nd Edition: Where It Is and Where It Is Going (According to Broadband Service Providers)”--updates a similar report issued in 2009 by the people at the FCC who wrote the National Broadband Plan. Based on data collected from service providers and third-party sources, the new report could be a valuable reference tool for anyone involved in the U.S. broadband market.
Here are some key findings:

• If just the two largest telephone companies (AT&T and Verizon) achieve their stated goals for wireline broadband deployment, at least 50 million homes will be able to receive advertised downstream speeds of 10 Mb/s or more within the next two years.
• By 2013 Verizon expects that LTE will provide subscribers with download speeds of 5 to 12 Mb/s in a deployment that aims to reach all of its covered population (at the end of 2008, Verizon’s wireless network covered 288 million people or 94% of the U.S. population).
• Two new satellites with greater capacity are expected to become operational beginning in 2011, with the operators claiming that each satellite will be capable of providing service at speeds of 2 to 10 Mb/s.
• While the majority of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections (approximately 5.2 million) are provided by the nation's largest telcos (AT&T, Verizon and Qwest), there are also 770 other service providers that deliver FTTH service to approximately 1.9 million homes.
• AT&T’s U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS currently cover approximately 35% of US households and plan to reach 40% at the end of their deployment schedule.
• Cable television companies currently provide broadband Internet access to an estimated 39% of households (versus 31% for telco broadband). Cable penetration numbers increased by 2% between 2009 and 2010.
• Cable company DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts will increase available broadband speeds substantially but deployment schedules are not yet set.
• Investment analysts and other research firms estimate year-end 2010 wireline broadband penetration at approximately 70% of all U.S. households, with 31% by telephone companies and 39% by cable companies.