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As in sports and business, competition is often a good motivator for national broadband performance. Increasingly, nations seek to have the bragging rights about which has the best broadband networks.
The latest foray into this contest comes from the European Commission. A spokeswoman for EU Commissioner Viviane Reding recently stated that the EU has regained a lead of 3 percentage points over the United States, with 23 percent of European homes and businesses using fixed-line broadband, compared with 20 percent in the U.S.
Reding stated that the European Union has re-established its lead, not only over the U.S. in broadband, but among all nations, making it "the world leader in broadband Internet.”
Really? If only saying it made it so.
But in fact, when looking not just at broadband adoption, but also at speed and quality, the United States actually outstrips the EU; and Korea and Japan outstrip both of them.
In a recent report, our organization
looked at 16 different factors, including broadband. To measure broadband we measured both adoption rates and broadband quality, as measured by upload and download speed with degree of latency (the delay time between delivery of data packets).
When this broader measure of broadband is used, the United States ranks in the middle of the pack in broadband among nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) . But it leads the EU-15, albeit by a small degree, and the broader EU-25 by even more (a score of 3.0 vs 2.5).
To be sure, these scores mask considerable differences within the EU, with the Nordic nations significantly ahead of the U.S. and even farther ahead of the rest of the EU-15. But other EU nations, including Spain, Italy, Ireland, and the U.K., lag behind the United States. And the EU-10 nations are significantly behind the U.S., scoring about one-third the level.
One reason why the United States scores higher is that it the quality of its broadband networks is higher. Networks in the U.S. tend to have less difficulty with latency than in Europe.
Where the EU is doing well is in its rate of progress. The EU-15 has progressed more than twice as fast than the U.S., in large part because the U.S. was even further ahead in 2002.
Notably, the EU-10 nations made progress much faster than the EU-15 and the U.S. in large part because they were starting from a low base.
Notwithstanding what the EU Commissioner says, the EU-15 (and the United States) rank behind Japan and South Korea in broadband, with these nations scoring between 120 percent and 42 percent higher, respectively, than the U.S.
Japan and South Korea ranked first and third, respectively, partially because of their large urban populations living in dense cities where it is cheaper to connect multiple users to fiber optic cable. That being said, it would be too deterministic to claim that Japan and South Korea’s leadership is simply a product of geographic coincidence. Over 90 percent of South Korean households subscribe to broadband; and in Japan, approximately 80 percent of homes have fiber-to-the-home connections.
Competition among nations for the best digital economy and society is good, but it is critical to get the facts right and to understand the reasons why countries are ahead or behind.
— Robert D. Atkinson is President and Founder of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
IQ Crew
Saturday August 8, 2009 5:35:30 PM
5 vs. 100 fits my criterion of order(s) of magnitude being significant, so we're in agreement there. And I'll give the OECD a call in the morning. ;)
Michael
Thinkernetter
Saturday August 8, 2009 3:48:31 PM
I would talk to the OECD if I were you and ask them if they can collect coverage data.
With regard to speed, having 100 mb FTTH to 80 percent of households (Japan) with 55 percent or so adoption is a whole lot better than having 5mbs to the same percentage (e.g. the US). I dont think these differences are incremental
IQ Crew
Saturday August 8, 2009 3:37:16 PM
Robert,
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I would say that speed (up and down, separately) matters when differences reach an order of magnitude, more or less, because truly new uses become feasible at these significant quantum leaps. Smaller increments of speed are signs of, um, incremental improvement, which is important to show constant attention to the issue, but I just can't see giving it the same weight as take-up and coverage. And usage!
I find it hard to believe that coverage data is any harder to find or less reliable than speed, but assuming you're right, that's still not an excuse for giving a headline to a report that weights equally only two of three factors you think are equally important.
Thinkernetter
Saturday August 8, 2009 2:48:41 PM
To respond to Modza, in my view three measures are important, coverage, take up and speed. Comparable coverage data are not generally available. Our report uses quality (which is mostly speed) and take up. Given that speed is becoming a more important factor in broadband, I do beleive that is worth weighting it equally.
To respond to mhhfive, yes, that was part of the reason for the post. Comparisons can be quite misleading. However, having said that, it does tell us something if one or more nations are significantly ahead in any technology. It tells us that that level of technological development is technically and economically viable, and that probably a nation with lower levels would do well to catch up. With regard to why we care about BB and is it related to jobs, productivity,etc., the answer is yes. See ITIF report, The Case for a National Broadband Policy. http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=52
IQ Crew
Friday August 7, 2009 6:20:09 PM
What are the correlations between broadband speeds/adoption/etc and ___x____ ..? I assume there are positive correlations with: GDP, ecommerce, electricity usage...
But what do these correlations really mean? Bragging rights over the top speed achieved on the Autobahn in Germany -- what does that mean for Germany? Germans make the best cars? Fastest broadband in Japan/Korea means....?
What do these rankings mean for infrastructure policy? Are we really saying that the US needs to "catch up" in some way? hmmm.
Obviously, we can always improve... but improvements should be based on a goal other than just "improving our ranking" on an arbitrary list, no?
IQ Crew
Friday August 7, 2009 4:59:43 PM
Seems to me the quality of the service, while important, is not the same thing as and not as significant as the availability and uptake (and usage) of the service. So is latency in the lagging countries of the EU such a problem that it changes "broadband" to "dialup" equivalent?
It's like saying I have 200 channels of TV, but the quality of the programming (IMHO) on so many of them, I "really" only have 20.
Thinkernetter
Friday August 7, 2009 2:20:44 PM
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, the title of this blog post was put up in mistake. It should read "EU's Broadband Claims Don't Hold Up." NOT "UK's"
Rob
Thinkernetter
Friday August 7, 2009 12:32:59 PM
I think it's pretty well documented how weak the UK government's digital aspirations are, but I don't think you can lay all this at their door too.
The European Commissioners are well known for living in cloud cuckoo land and this is just another illustration.
But is this not symptomatic of all governments approach to the Internet?
It seems they are perpetually playing catch-up and ultimately it is the private sector that drives its development and expansion.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose. |
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previous posts from Robert D. Atkinson
By now, most people have heard the statistics: Regarding broadband speed and deployment, the United States continues to lag behind countries such as South Korea and Japan, as well as some European peers, including Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom. Median broadband speeds in the U.S. are less than 5 Mbit/s, while Japan and South Korea have median speeds 10 times greater (63 Mbit/s and 49 Mbit/s, respectively).
To listen to the debates over IT policy in the U.S. these days, it would be easy for a casual observer to believe that the U.S. has only one policy goal for the digital economy: spurring broadband deployment and adoption.
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