Tell Senators To Keep Broadband Investment In The Stimulus Bill

Today Beth Allen at Speedmatters.org sent out an email some of you may have received. If you did not get it - here it is:

Dear Speed Matters Activist,

We're getting closer to important new investments in high speed Internet across America.

After hearing from thousands of Speed Matters activists like you, the House of Representatives included funding for broadband infrastructure in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Senate is debating stimulus legislation this week. But you know what can happen when Congress picks through a piece of legislation -- some parts are added, some parts are removed, and what finally passes can look very different from the original version.

That's why the entire Speed Matters community must send a strong, united message about the importance of broadband investment -- for the sake of our Internet and for the sake of our economy. Make your voice heard by contacting your Senators right now:

www.speedmatters.org/stimulus

Broadband funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a good start on the road to universal high speed Internet access, job creation, and economic growth. Every $5 billion in broadband investment creates an additional 100,000 jobs -- and provides the key infrastructure to keep our economy growing in the long-term.

The Senate stimulus legislation couples flexible grant programs with tax incentives to spur investment in rural areas and high speed networks and encourage job growth. It also includes funding for grants for broadband mapping, setting up community technology teams, and other broadband community outreach efforts. Together, these policies can solve the challenges of expanding broadband access and adoption and upgrading networks -- all while giving a strong boost to our economy.

Universal, affordable broadband also helps us address other pressing concerns, including health care, education, online job search and job training, our environmental crisis, access for people with disabilities, public safety, and civic participation.

Make sure your Senators know about all these benefits of broadband investment. Contact them today:

www.speedmatters.org/stimulus

We've gotten this close to new broadband investment and hundreds of thousands of good jobs -- we can't afford to let up now.

Sincerely,

Beth Allen
speedmatters.org Online Mobilization Coordinator

Sign the digital petition and get a sample letter to send to your Senators at www.speedmatters.org/stimulus

Broadband: Can We Catch South Korea?

A couple of months ago I wrote about our poor broadband penetration rate (15th) in the U.S. when compared to the rest of the world. First place last year went to South Korea and in looks like the Koreans will not be sitting back enjoying their lead. A couple of days ago the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced plans to increase high-speed Internet and wireless broadband services to rates 10 times faster by the end of 2012.

The proposed network will be all IP-based with a total cost of 34.1 trillion won ($24.6 billion) spread out over the next five years. The Korean government will pitch in 1.3 trillion won ($937.83 million), with the rest being covered by private companies. The KCC estimates the project will create 120,000 jobs. Connected high-speed Internet services will increase to 1 Gbps and wireless services will increase to 10 Mbps. Here's a couple of interesting quotes from the JoongAng Daily:

The KCC said the changes will make high-definition TV images up to 16 times clearer, and interactive TV services such as e-commerce and home schooling will also be possible. The service will also make it possible to watch I-Max films on home TVs.

“This plan will bring innovation to the public’s digital lives,” KCC said in the release. Digital TV coverage will also rise to 96 percent in 2012 from the current 87 percent, according to the plan. The KCC added that the project will help Korea cement its position as one of the world’s leading IT countries. More than 94 percent of Korean households already have access to high-speed Internet services, and Korea has the highest number of subscribers to broadband services in the world as of last year, according to OECD data.

Can we catch them? Let's see. The U.S. Department of State keeps population and area statistics on their website. Here's the latest on South Korea:

Population (2008): 48,379,392
Area: 98,480 sq. km. (38,023 sq. mi.); slightly larger than Indiana.

Doing some quick calculations figuring on the $937.83 million government input in South Korea:

Korean gov. dollars spent for upgrade per resident: ($937.83 million) / (48,379,392 people) = $19.38 per resident
Korean gov. dollars spent for upgrade per square mile: ($937.83 million) / (38,023 sq. mi.) = $24,664 per sq. mi.

Right now it looks like the Obama stimulus plan has between 6 and 9 Billion dollars tagged for broadband services. Do we have any chance of catching South Korea? Here's some statistics for the U.S.

Population (2008): 303,824,640
Area: 3,537,441 square miles

Let's use the higher $9 billion number and do similar calculations for the U.S.

U.S. gov. dollars spent for upgrade per resident: ($9 billion) / (303,824,640 people) = $29.62 per resident
U.S. gov. dollars spent for upgrade per square mile: ($9 billion) / (3,537,441 sq. mi.) = $2,544.21 per sq. mi.

We're in good shape when we compare dollars spent per resident - we're more than $10 over what South Korea will spend.

What hurts us is the physical size of our country - the South Korean government is spending almost ten times what we would spend per square mile. It looks like we're going to need to do things a little differently if we are serious about catching up.

OECD Statistics: U.S. Broadband Penetration Rate Still Low

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released their June 2008 international broadband statistics. Here are some of the highlights:

The upgrade to fibre-based connections continues in the OECD. Fibre subscriptions comprise 9% of all broadband connections in the OECD (up from 8% in December 2007).

Fibre overtakes DSL/Cable in Korea and Japan and now accounts for 45% of all Japanese broadband subscriptions and 39% in Korea. Korea’s fibre penetration alone (12.2 per 100 inhabitants) is higher than total broadband penetration in 5 OECD countries.

The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD reached 251 million by June 2008, an increase of 14% from June 2007. This growth increased broadband penetration rates to 21.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, up from 20% in December 2007.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Korea and Finland lead the OECD with broadband penetration well above the OECD average, each surpassing the 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold.

The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in Luxembourg and Germany. Each country added more than 5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. On average, the OECD area increased 2.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants over the year.

The United States is the largest broadband market in the OECD with 75 million subscribers. US broadband subscribers consistently represent 30% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

Even though the United States has the largest broadband market, our penetration rate continues to be low with a ranking of 15th in the world.

Find all international statistics on the OECD Broadband Portal linked here http://www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband