How Big is the Broadband Industry

I constantly see articles that make claims about the percentage of homes that have broadband, cable TV, or telephone service. Any time I see a statement like that, I ask the question—how many total homes are in the U.S.—a number that is needed to calculate a penetration rate. There doesn’t seem to be any consensus on that question. I’ve tackled this exercise periodically and have never gotten close to having a satisfactory answer. I think many of the folks who cite penetration rates are off base. The bottom line for me is to assume any statistic that claims a national penetration rate for a broadband statistic is not accurate–possibly badly so. This doesn’t imply that the folks making a claim are being deceptive—I think it just means that there is no consensus for the denominator used to calculate a national penetration rate.