U.S. Making Progress On Fiber
The United States has maintained its current ranking of 15th in terms of broadband penetration, according to the latest statistics released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, but the country is making progress in the amount of fiber-optic lines being installed. The latest OECD statistics, based on data from June 2009, show that while the United States may still lag behind other countries in terms of the number of broadband subscribers per 100 residents, the United States is seventh overall in the rollout of fiber. Fiber enables much faster broadband speeds than are currently available with cable or DSL, according to Taylor Reynolds with the OECD's Science, Technology and Industry division.
The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and South Korea round out the top five in terms of broadband penetration among the OECD's member countries. However, in terms of fiber penetration, Japan and South Korea are well ahead of most other countries while the United States is making progress. "Nearly one in 10 OECD subscribers currently accesses the Internet over fiber," according to an OECD press release.
While the OECD did not update its statistics on broadband prices, U.S. customers tend to pay more than residents in other countries, Reynolds said. For example, he said the cost of an Internet, phone and video package in Paris, where there are about a half dozen broadband providers, is about half of what it costs in the United States. Reynolds said competition tends to be greater and broadband prices are lower in those OECD countries that require dominant providers to lease elements of their network infrastructure to rivals, a policy known as unbundling. "The markets with the cheapest prices are those that also have unbundling," he added. This view was echoed in a broadband study done for the FCC by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
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