Last week the OECD released its update on broadband metrics and the United States lags most developing countries in broadband speeds and price. It is interesting to note that the cost per bit for Internet access is about 4 times higher than in countries that have more than two competitors in the market. These figures once again validate the need for local access competition. Our broadband penetration is respectable considering the population density, but we still lag countries with true competition.
The OECD this week released an update to its much-watched set of broadband metrics. The data set now extends through December 2009, and the US continues to look anemic on most OECD measures.
How about price? The US comes in 19th when measured on “cost per Mbps.” The OECD numbers use Purchasing Power Parity to ensure that the dollar amounts are comparable between countries, and US broadband turns out to cost $8 for each advertised Mbps of service. In Korea, it’s $1.76. The UK, not known for fast speeds, but having decent competition thanks to line-sharing rules, is $1.98. Japan is $2.33
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About Mark Milliman
Mark Milliman is a Principal Consultant at Inphotonics Research driving the adoption and assisting local governments to plan, build, operate, and lease access open-access municipal broadband networks. Additionally, he works with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to increase the value of their intellectual capital through the creation of strategic product plans and execution of innovative marketing strategies. With more than 22 years of experience in the telecommunications industry that began at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mark has built fiber, cable, and wireless networks around the world to deliver voice, video, and data services. His thorough knowledge of all aspects of service delivery from content creation to the design, operation, and management of the network is utilized by carriers and equipment manufacturers. Mark conceived and developed one of the industry's first multi-service provisioning platform and is multiple patent holder. He is active in the IEEE as a senior member. Mark received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
