Proposed Bill Aimed At U.S. Broadband Infrastructure

It shouldn’t be surprising to you that the U.S. is by far not at the top of the list when it comes to broadband speeds and more importantly access.  In 2001, the United States was ranked 4th and last year had slid all the way down to 15th, but there is a new bill going through congress that may help change that trend.

According to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), in 2007 the United States was ranked 12th with 51% penetration (subscribers/household), with an average speed of 4.8 mbps, and an average cost of  $3.33 per month per mbps.  In 2007, the number one ranked South Korea, which had the hightest penetration level at 90% had an average speed of 45.6 mbps and an averages cost per month per mbps of $0.45.  Second ranked Japan has the highest average speed at 61 mbps and also the lowest cost at only $0.27 per month per mbps, but only with 52% penetration.

In the 2008 ITIF Broadband Rankings, the United States fell to 15th even thought it showed a 6% increase in penetration for a total of 57%.  The United States also saw a 0.1 mbps increase in average speed and a $0.50 reduction in cost bringing the average cost per month per mpbs down to $2.83.  The top 2 in the rankings didn’t change with South Korea coming it at 93% penetration, a 49.5 mbps average speed, and an average cost of $0.37.  Japan was able to improve to 55% penetration, an average speed of 63.6 mpbs, and a reducing their already low price to $0.13 per month per mbps.

What does this mean for the United States?  With more and more services moving to the Internet it is fairly safe to assume that trend will continue and probably as a faster and faster rate.  More and more TV shows are able to be streamed via the Internet in a web browser, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have revolutionized the way the world communicates, and if you really wanted to, you could buy your groceries from your laptop while sitting on the couch if you live in the right areas.  It is safe to assume that the need for increase bandwidth is not going to go away and that in the near futures, next 3-5 years, the average speed of 4.9 mpbs will not be enough to cut it for the average Internet user.

Well there may be a start to the solution currently in the form of a bill that is on its way through congress.  The bill was introduced by Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) on May 14, 2009 and has been named the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009.  The bill would make it a requirement for states to install broadband conduit as a part of any covered highway construction project.  The conduit would be required to be large enough to accomodate potential demand as well as multiple broadband providers.

Although the conduit will be empty, this should be a good start towards increasing broadband availability across the country as the conduit will be there and available for use by providers.  It could also help bring the cost of broadband down since it would cost less for providers to extend their networks as the most expensive part of installing cable is burying it and the conduit would already be in the ground.

If this bill passes it may help turn the United States around and hopefully start the climb back up the ITIF rankings.  More information on this bill can be found via THOMAS (Library of Congress) H. R. 2428.

Full ITIF Broadband Rankings:

• 2007 ITIF Broadband Rankings
• 2008 ITIF Broadband Rankings