By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 18th, 2010
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in September released a study on the importance ofproviding citizens with a broadband Internet service.
As the GAO report states, “increasingly, broadband Internet service is seen as critical to anation’s physical infrastructure and economic growth.” Those issues are especially importantthese days.
The American Spark offers quotes from the study’s highlights:
Why GAO Did This Study
“Increasingly, broadband Internet service is seen as critical to a nation’s physical infrastructure and economicgrowth. Universal access to, and increased use and adoption of, broadband service are policy goals stated inthe National Broadband Plan, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released in March 2010.
“Some recent studies indicate that despite achieving nearly 95 percent broadband deployment and globallycompetitive adoption rates, the United States has moved from the top to the middle of the internationalrankings. Other developed countries, which have made universal access and increased adoption priorities,rank higher than the United States in these areas, and their experiences may be of interest to U.S.policymakers.
“GAO was asked to address:
(1) the status of broadband deployment and adoption in developed countries,
(2) actions selected countries have taken to increase deployment and adoption, and
(3) how recommendations in the National Broadband Plan align with the selected countries’ actions.
“GAO analyzed relevant information for 30 developed countries that are members of the Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and visited 7 of these countries selected for theirbroadband policies and economic or demographic characteristics. GAO also interviewed public- and private-sector contacts in these countries and FCC officials. FCC provided technical comments on this report.
What GAO Found
“Broadband infrastructure has been widely deployed in developed countries, but broadband adoption rates aremore variable because of cost and other factors.
“In 27 of the 30 OECD countries, including the United States, broadband has been deployed to 90 percent ormore of households, regardless of differences in demographic and geographic factors, while broadbandadoption rates are affected by factors such as population, cost, and computer ownership.
“In the United States, which ranks 15th for both deployment and adoption, broadband has been deployed to95 percent of households, with 26.4 subscribers per 100 inhabitants—above the OECD average of 23.3.
“To increase broadband deployment adoption, the 7 countries GAO selected—Canada, France, Japan, theNetherlands, South Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—have taken actions that stakeholders in thesecountries considered effective. GAO placed these actions in five categories—(1) instituting plans and policies(2) providing funds through public/private partnerships, (3) increasing competition, (4) expanding onlineservices, and (5) providing digital literacy training, consumer subsidies, or both.
“All 7 countries have instituted some type of broadband plan. To help increase deployment in areas privateenterprise views as unprofitable, national or regional governments in all 7 countries have used public/privatepartnerships.
“To help increase usage and thus expand adoption, all 7 have enacted policies to encourage competition andhave increased the number of government services available online. Several countries have also offeredtraining or subsidies, often targeting populations with low adoption rates.”
