Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com
Access to high speed Internet in the European Union is growing with 80 percent of broadband lines now having download speeds of 2 megabits per second or greater, according to
a report published Wednesday by the European Commission.
In July 2009, 24 percent of the EU population had a broadband access line subscription marking a 21.6 percent increase from July 2008, the report found. The research also found a 54 percent increased of mobile broadband penetration since January, which means the EU currently has a penetration rate of 4.2 percent per 100 citizens.
“Vibrant high-speed broadband markets in a competitive single telecoms market are a strategic priority in the European Digital Agenda that is currently being prepared in the Commission. High-speed internet broadband, whether via fibre networks or wireless, is a pre-condition for a strong digital economy in Europe and for European leadership in new technologies and applications,” said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding in a statement.
She expects a new and pro-competitive regulatory framework for Europe's telecoms markets to drive the roll-out of high speed internet in member states.
The report found 40 percent of the population in Denmark and the Netherlands have a broadband...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
Editor’s Note: The following is a BroadbandCensus.com summary and analysis of the recent report, “Next Generation Connectivity,” released by the Berkman Center, and commissioned by Federal Communications Commission.
WASHINGTON, November 17, 2009 – The main purpose of the report by the Berkman Center at Harvard University, commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission, was to examine global broadband policies and determine how the United States may adopt principles employed by the rest of the world as a means of expanding the current state of domestic broadband. Among nations, there seem to be two different overarching goals, ubiquity and capacity.
Many European nations seem to be reaching for a goal of ubiquity rather than capacity. While they do seek to obtain high-speed connections, their first goal has been to achieve mass adoption and availability of broadband. This ubiquity was a key portion of Japan’s early broadband planning, but now it has shifted toward higher-capacity connectivity.
The U.S., said the Berkman report, has never had a properly-organized and centralized plan to promote either ubiquity or capacity. However, with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and the Universal Service Fund, it seems like the choice is being made toward ubiquity.
Open access seems to be...
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Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Editor’s Note: This is the one of a series of panelist summary articles that BroadbandCensus.com will be reporting from the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 25-27, at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va.
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
ARLINGTON, Va., September 26, 2009 - Fiber to the home (FTTH) has been touted by many as the next great leap in broadband connectivity, and was discussed at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference here on Saturday.
In Japan this service has already become the leading method of broadband connectivity, with speeds reaching 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps), and a seemingly endless potential for application development. Professor Masatsugu Tsuji from the University of Hyogo presented an analysis on how FTTH has become the dominant connection method in the country.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation is the dominant corporation in the FTTH market with a market share of nearly 70 percent. The cost of these services is also much lower in Japan versus the United States: in Japan, a 1Gbps connection costs less than $40.
Because some individuals still prefer to keep their older digital subscriber line connections, NTT must maintain two networks, a copper network for DSL and a fiber network. Japan does...
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
Editor’s Note: BroadbandCensus.com will be co-hosting a special session, with the Benton Foundation and the New America Foundation, on “The State of Broadband Data & Mapping,” immediately following dinner on Friday night at Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. See below for details. Information and Registration for TPRC.
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, September 25, 2009 - The annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, a must-attend event for academics focused on broadband-related topics, begins at Friday at 2 p.m. ET at Geoge Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va. The conference continues on Saturday and Sunday, and is likely to be particularly noteworthy this year.
With the recent broadband stimulus plans, including grants for broadband, increased funding for health information technology, and the national broadband plan being developed by the Federal Communications Commission, the academic community will have the opportunity to weigh into these debates.
This conference, the 37th Annual Research Conference, is broken down into four distinct subtopics: Network Competition and Broadband Policy, Next Generation Internet and its Management, Spectrum Policy and Wireless Applications, Universal Access and ICT for Development, and Media, Digital Rights and Privacy/Security.
The Network Competition and Broadband Policy sessions revolve around how broadband policy differentiates globally. One noteworthy session...
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Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
News
By William G. Korver, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, July 29 – Basing telecommunications policy around the faulty ranking system of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development would lead to an “ill-defined national broadband strategy,” officials from the Phoenix Center think tank said Monday.
Decrying the widespread assumption that America has fallen behind the rest of the world in broadband penetration, George Ford and Lawrence Spiwak criticized the OECD's ranking system at a luncheon in the Rayburn House Office Building.
The current OECD system ranks measures broadband penetration on a per capita, and not a per household basis, which has led to countries with smaller household sizes moving up in the chart since 2001.
People do not buy broadband connections, Ford said; rather, households and businesses buy broadband conections.
Moreover, said Ford and Spiwak, countries that have risen in recent rankings – Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands – are small and do not have large rural areas where broadband deployment remains a challenge.
Additionally, many countries that were near the top in broadband rankings in 2001 have since fallen, said Ford. “Miracle” Japan has dropped in the OECD ratings, for example. In spite of having 100 Megabit per second-capable broadband networks, Japan ranked behind the U.S....
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