Research from two separate sources has suggested that the US broadband industry could be facing a gloomy future.
A report released by the Leichtman Research Group (LRG) shows that in the second quarter of 2008 broadband take-up had reduced by half in comparison to last years second quarter figures and is at a seven year low for growth.
The principal analyst and president of the Leichtman Research Group, Bruce Leichtman advised “Net broadband additions in the quarter were the fewest of any quarter in the seven years LRG has been tracking the industry.”
He also said “While the relative number of quarterly broadband ads has certainly peaked, the decline in additions this quarter compared to the same period last year was exacerbated by Verizon and AT&T’s emphasis on selling higher speed FiOS and U-verse bundled services, often at the expense of the traditional DSL service.”
In comparison Cable has fared slightly better attaining a 54 overall broadband market share and gaining 76 percent of new customers. The top 20 providers were included in the research and accounted for just above 65 million subscribers which was a market share of 94 percent.
The Communication Workers of America (CWA) sponsored the second piece of research which found that when compared to the broadband speeds of other industrialized nations the US was falling further behind. An online speed test was performed on almost 230 000 internet users and the resulting data was analyzed. The results came back showing that the average speed of access for most US internet user was just 2.3Mbps which was quite poor. The best access speeds were found in Rhode Island with a 6.8Mbps average and speeds of 0.8Mbps in Alaska made it the slowest.
The president of the Communication Workers of America, Larry Cohen advised “This isn’t about how fast someone can download a full-length movie. Speed matters to our economy and our ability to remain competitive in a global marketplace,”
He went on to say “We are the only industrialized nation without a national policy to promote universal, high-speed internet access – and it shows. Most of our Speed Test users logged on with broadband connections such as DSL, cable modem or fiber. People with dial-up connections didn’t take the test because it took them too long, so even these dismal statistics paint a rosier-than-reality picture of connection speeds across the country.”
The US average download speeds were compared to countries like France whose average speeds were 17Mbps, South Korea with 49Mbps, and Japan with an average of 63Mbps. As a means to keep up with these countries the group called for a national telecommunications infrastructure program to be implemented.