As retailers, media companies and even government agencies attempt to get with the times and connect with an online audience, every once in a while they get a reminder: Anybody, or any group, armed with a Web browser can anonymously game the system and manipulate the marketplace at sites inviting user feedback -- for profit or just for fun.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday released its latest data on broadband access. For broadband penetration, the United States is in the middle of the pack, slightly above average for OECD member countries. As for affordability, the United States has monthly broadband subscription fees that are slightly more expensive than the average for the OECD. The US is the most wired country in the world, according to a new study of industrialized counties that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. With 80,071,074 people connected to DSL, cable, or fiber (as of December 2008), America has nearly as many high-speed surfers as the next four countries combined (Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France). But tech patriotism may fade a bit when you consider the plight of average Americans. On a per-capita basis, the US ranks a dismal 15th -- behind Canada and most of northern Europe -- with just 27-percent of its population hooked up to fast pipes. Surprisingly, that still puts the US ahead of Japan, which has a 24-percent connection rate, as well as other wealthy counties, including Australia, Austria, Spain and Italy. The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD reached 267 million in December 2008, or the equivalent of 22.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The number of broadband subscriptions grew 13% during 2008. The economic crisis has not significantly slowed broadband adoption. In fact, broadband growth during the last six months of the year was slightly stronger at 6.23% than in the first six months at 6.16%. The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in the Slovak Republic, Greece, New Zealand and Norway, Germany, France and the United States. Each country added more than 3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. On average, the OECD area increased 2.5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants over the year. Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Korea and Finland maintain their lead the OECD with broadband penetration well above the OECD average, each surpassing the 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold. There was no change in rankings in the past 6 months among these leading countries.
Extending fiber-optic Internet service to public libraries would help increase the demand for super-high-speed Internet at home, broadband experts said Thursday. Speaking at a forum at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Don Means, the co-founder and principal of Digital Village Associates, outlined his proposal to extend high-speed connectivity to all 16,500 libraries in the country. Bringing fiber to the libraries, besides being the quickest, cheapest way to provide next generation broadband to next generation libraries, is also a good idea because it gives people experience with fiber-speed Internet, Means said. Further, by building fiber links, communities can help increase demand for fiber by demonstrating its benefits, and help provide incentives to become an "anchor tenant" for other community institutions that would benefit from fiber links. Means, a consultant from Sausalito, Calif., first began offered fiber to the library in 2000. Rob Atkinson, president of ITIF, said that the debate over implementing the broadband stimulus has been too narrowly focused on unserved and underserved areas. Serving libraries with high-speed connectivity can provide a benefit even to otherwise "served" areas of the country.
[Commentary] Before the stimulus there were tons of communities that weren't really talking or thinking about their broadband needs and fewer still that were in the process of developing plans to address those needs. But now every community is at least starting to have those conversations. Before the stimulus it was hard to get the different stakeholders in a community around the same table to talk broadband as they either didn't care enough about it, didn't understand it, or saw nothing but a huge cost. Now the stimulus is sparking a coming together across the nation where everyone's talking about what they can do to get themselves wired. Before the stimulus there were many communities for which broadband was a pipe dream. They just didn't have the money to consider doing anything and their market wasn't attractive enough to attract private investment. Now there's a significant chunk of money to help get them wired. What's most exciting is that the kinds of conversations and people coming together the stimulus is inspiring is precisely what needs to be happening to get all communities wired regardless of the stimulus. So even if a community doesn't win out and get BTOP or RUS money -- and we have to be realistic that most won't get money as there's not enough to go around -- they'll still have made progress towards having an actionable plan for getting broadband. And with this plan they can be ready to funnel the additional federal support that I think we'll see coming, assuming this broadband stimulus is a success, or as the basis for finding additional ways to fund/incentivize deployment.
Despite the expectation of broadband stimulus funds from the federal government in the coming months, US spending on access equipment should fall 27% this year and keep declining for the next two years before springing back to growth, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association. TIA predicts, for the first time ever, a global telecom industry decline this year (a 3.1% drop followed by 1.2% growth next year) -- projected access equipment spending declines of 9.8% in 2010 and 3.2% in 2011, followed by 18.2% growth in 2012. All told, the domestic broadband equipment market will shrink by more than $3.2 billion (or 36%) over the next three years.
Back in April, the Department of Energy issued a Notice of Intent of its plans to use stimulus money to fund smart grid projects. In order to get things moving quickly, the DOE had a short timeframe for public comments. Nevertheless, a variety of companies and groups provided their input before the deadline, and the DOE has already acted to implement some of their suggestions.
The early returns on the national soft analog cut-off test are showing a wave, but not yet a flood, of calls to the Federal Communications Commission's digital television transition call center. The majority of the 950 or so stations pulling the plug on analog June 12 were participating in the soft test, which for most comprised of three simulated analog turn-offs--one in the morning, one at noon and a third in the evening. According to the source, 27,106 calls had been received through 3 pm, which would include all the morning tests and all but the Pacific time zone noon tests. That was compared to an average of 15,000 calls per day the center has been averaging since May 1. Of those 27,000-plus calls to 1-888-callfcc, 52% were about DTV-to-analog converter box coupons, about evenly split between callers saying they wanted to apply for them and ones who had applied wondering where theirs were.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association has told the Federal Communications Commission that a wealth of competition has spurred cable to provide more and better service. The bottom line of its message was that Congressional mandates in the 1992 Cable Act on rate regulation, program access, program carriage, leased access, PEG access, cable-ownership restrictions and more are now "relics of a bygone era" because competition has been "unquestionably" achieved. The previous 13 reports have been a "documentary history of the steady and irreversible growth of competition in the video marketplace," said NCTA, a pace that has only increased exponentially in the three years since the FCC put out its last report. The cable trade group pointed to the rise of DBS from no presence in 1993 to 29.2% in 2006, the growth of telco video, online video, home video, mobile video, and the potential of broadcast multicast channels.
The American Cable Association focused on retransmission consent in its comments to the Federal Communications Commission on the state of video competition. In a filing at the Commission, ACA said that the "meteoric rise" in retrans costs for the small and medium-sized cable operators it represents put them at a competitive disadvantage by limiting their ability to deploy advanced services, including broadband in rural markets.
The White House announced a groundbreaking new means of engaging the public in policymaking at www.whitehouse.gov/open and through a formal outreach published in the Federal Register. This innovative approach provides several ways to supplement the expertise of government employees with the knowledge and know-how of the American people. It also will result in a more open, accessible federal decision-making process. In announcing the open government efforts, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, called the initiative "an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking." "This will help us achieve a new foundation for our government - a foundation built on the values of transparency, accountability, and responsibility," Jarrett said. "This is a chance to brainstorm ideas, discuss the most promising ones, and collaborate with one another on next steps." The President believes that effective policy benefits from the best available information in society, and that the expertise from a diverse segment of Americans will strengthen government policies and approaches. Using today's tools, we can make this a reality that will benefit everyone.
Sunlight Foundation Executive Director Ellen Miller called the open government site "fascinating" and Data.gov "path-breaking." She said the initiatives represent "a dramatic demonstration of the administration's intent to use technology to create a more transparent and collaborative government." But others like OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass tempered their excitement with skepticism. He worries the open government brainstorming phase that ends next week and the mid-June timeline for drafting recommendations for Obama is too fast. He is also concerned that questions the White House posed to spur the online dialogue are too basic and letting Internet users vote on the best ideas will lead to "cool" but ultimately flawed concepts prevail.
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