broadband and the US

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

------- Original message -------
From: Drew Clark  <drewclark () gmail com>
Sent: 26/4/'05,  10:54

Dave,

The stories below are perhaps of interest to [IP]. Feel free to redistribute.

yours, 


Drew Clark
Senior Writer, National Journal's Technology Daily
Columnist, "Wired in Washington," every other Tuesday in
CongressDailyAM and online at www.drewclark.com/wiredinwashington
Blogger, www.drewclark.com

Coming April 18!     National Journal's Insider Update: The Telecom
Act at http://www.njtelecomupdate.com

"Wired in Washington"   Stuck without its own cable news outlet during
last year's political conventions, ABC News launched "ABC News Now,"
using digital technology, including high-speed Internet access, to
enable gavel-to-gavel convention coverage. Read the latest column at
http://nationaljournal.com/about/congressdaily/columns/clark.htm

Also see my piece about Grokster.   "The Battle Between Tinseltown and
Techville," in Washington Post's Outlook Section on April 10 at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39168-2005Apr9

tel: 202-266-7371
cel: 202-329-9517
email: drew () drewclark com

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www.drewclark.com

Here are the stories from National Journal's Technology Daily | April 25, 2005

Broadband
U.S. Drops Again In Global Internet Race
by Drew Clark

     The United States has dropped even further in the high-speed Internet race.
     Statistics released this month by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) show that U.S. global broadband
penetration dropped last year from 13th place to 16th.
     The ITU news log shows the United States at 11.4 broadband
subscribers per 100 inhabitants as of Dec. 31, 2004. The percentage of
subscribers is less than half of what South Korea boasts -- the global
leader with 24.9 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
     The following top four nations are Hong Kong at 20.9 percent, the
Netherlands with 19.4, Denmark reporting in at 19.3 and Canada at
17.6. Canada dropped two slots, from third place in 2003 to fifth
place in 2004. South Korea and Hong Kong ranked No. 1 and No. 2,
respectively, in both 2002 and 2003.
     Norway, Israel and Finland each surpassed the United States in
broadband penetration for the first time. And an aggressive rollout in
France almost pushed the U.S. even lower. High-speed Internet use in
France doubled from 5.61 subscribers per 100 inhabitants at the end of
2003 to 11.2 per 100 last year, putting the nation at 17th, just one
notch below the United States.
     The other major global ranking of broadband deployment is by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a more
limited group of advanced economies that compiles data semi-annually.
The U.S. also dropped rank in this report.
     In 2001, the U.S. ranked fourth among OECD member nations. In
2003, it ranked 10th. The group has not finalized its December 2004
ranking, but in June 2004, the U.S. ranked 11th. "When we finalize
[statistics] to the end of 2004, it should be about 12th or 13th,"
said OECD telecom unit head Dimitri Ypsilanti.
     Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel and Singapore are not OECD nations, so
a 16th place ranking in the ITU survey would translate into a 12th
place ranking in the OECD list.
     Telecommunications officials at the ITU and the OECD attribute
the U.S. slide to the lack of vibrant competition in the broadband
marketplace and the absence of an administrative policy to promote
broadband.
     "A lot of European countries [have grown] because they have
fairly vibrant local loop unbundling," said Ypsilanti, referring to
the practice of requiring the dominant telecom provider to share
high-speed wires.
     "The U.S. is basically [digital subscriber lines] from incumbent
[telecom companies] versus cable from incumbents, and that doesn't
seem to be generating that much competition," said Ypsilanti.
     Higher penetration brings faster speeds and lower prices, said Ypsilanti.
     In France, which he identified as traditionally a technological
laggard, it is now possible to purchase 2 megabit-per-second broadband
connections for about $24 a month, with unlimited Internet telephone
calls for an additional $12, he said.
     "Those countries that have done well, have done well because of
active government policies for the development of broadband," said
Lara Srivastava, telecom policy analyst for the Geneva-based ITU,
which is part of the United Nations.
     "In the U.S., they don't have active policies like Korea or
Singapore, or Japan," said Srivastava.



Broadband
U.S. Broadband Slide Gets Mixed Reactions
by Drew Clark

     Technology and telecommunications industry groups on Monday had
an array of reactions to news that the U.S. broadband penetration
ranking fell last year from 13th to 16th place globally.
     The 13th-place ranking played a bit part in the domestic policy
debate last year between President Bush and Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry, who last October cited the figure from the
International Telecommunications Union to argue that Bush had
neglected technology policy. The United States had ranked 11th at the
end of 2002, falling to 13th at the end of 2003.
     Bush addressed the subject at a major technology speech on April
26, 2004, and set a goal "to bring broadband to every corner of our
country by the year 2007 with competition shortly thereafter."
     "We are going in the wrong direction," said Nick Kolovos,
director and counsel of government relations at the Information
Technology Industry Council. He added that overseas broadband is
increasingly faster and cheaper than its U.S. counterpart means that
"it might even be more dismal than 16th might appear."
     "The risk of saying that this is going to happen without some
close focused attention on the part of the government are too great to
the economy and too great for our economic standing in the world."
     ITI and other technology groups are preparing to mount a major
push for a "hard deadline" by which broadcasters much vacate
frequencies currently used for analog television.
     "With digital television spectrum in the 700 megahertz band, you
can have advanced wireless broadband in rural...areas where it might
be difficult" to otherwise deploy high-speed Internet services,
Kovolos said. The drop in ranking "just reinforces the urgency of the
[digital television] issue."
     "I would view the latest rankings more as a call to action than
cause for jumping off a bridge," said Bruce Mehlman, a technology
industry lobbyist whose clients include the Computer Systems Policy
Project, a group that is preparing to weigh in to the DTV issue.
     The much-cited 13th place was repeated as recently as the April
launch of the group TeleConsensus by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and
the National Association of Manufacturers.
     "This is another example of why we need to update the telecom
laws to spur more competition here at home and to fully compete in
today's global economy," said Allison Remsen, spokeswoman for the
United States Telecommunications Association.
     The lobby has run advertisements in many publications, including
those of the National Journal Group, asking the question: "Where does
the U.S. rank in bringing broadband to families and workers?" before
displaying the numbers three, five, 10 and 13.
     Not everyone who heard the news expressed concern. "A lot people
talk about how far the U.S. is behind, and we don't necessarily concur
with that opinion," said Brian Dietz, spokesman for the National Cable
and Telecommunications Association.
     "Without the cable industry's $95 billion private risk capital
investment to upgrade its nationwide broadband infrastructure,
high-speed Internet use would not be as far along in the U.S. as it is
today," he said.

URL:
http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp050425.htm (subscription)
or
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-QGBX1114459808856.html (free)

plus, the URL of the ITU statistics is:
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/newslog/ITUs+New+Broadband+Statistics+For+1+January+2005.aspx


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