New Broadband Statistics -- US Now Ranks 15th in World

OECD BROADBAND STATISTICS TO DECEMBER 2006
[SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, AUTHOR: ]
Over the past year, the number of broadband subscribers in the OECD increased 26% from 157 million in December 2005 to 197 million in December 2006. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from 13.5 in December 2005 to 16.9 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants one year later. Some highlights: 1) European countries have continued their advance with high broadband penetration rates. In December 2006, eight countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Sweden) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with at least 26 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2) Denmark and the Netherlands are the first two countries in the OECD to surpass 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 3) The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year comes from Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Ireland. Each country added more than 5.8 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. 4) The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 58.1 million. US broadband subscribers now represent 29% of all broadband connections in the OECD, down from 30% in June 2006.
http://www.oecd.org/document/7/0,2340,en_2649_34223_38446855_1_1_1_1,00....

* FCC Commissioner Copps Call for National Broadband Strategy
"Every year brings more bad news as the United States slides farther down the broadband rankings. It's a national embarrassment and the only way to change it is to develop a broadband strategy like every other industrialized nation has already done. These rankings aren't a beauty contest -- they're about our competitiveness as a country and creating economic opportunity for all our people. Bringing high-speed broadband to every corner of the country is the central infrastructure challenge we face. Always in the past, our nation found ways to stay ahead of everyone else in building infrastructure like turnpikes, railroads and highways. Now, in broadband, we're not even an also-ran."
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-272519A1.doc

* U.S. Drops Further in World Broadband Rankings (Free Press)
According to the OECD report, the United States ranks 20th out of 30 nations in the growth rate of broadband penetration over the past year.
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=226

* U.S. Trails Europe in Broadband Growth
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6435919.html