Is U.S.Broadband in Trouble?

Recently, the U.S. was rated lower in position than more than a dozen other countries in broadband Internet usage. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that the United States had fallen to twelfth place, a loss of eight places. The first place country, South Korea, has nearly twice the percentage of the U.S. at almost 25 broadband subscribers per 100 citizens. Should this be a real cause for concern?

Some believe the United States stands to lose a great deal if it keeps slipping behind other countries in the percentage of citizens with high-speed Internet access because broadband access has implications far beyond the speed of Web browsers. They feel that full-scale adoption of the high-speed connections in Asian and European nations has fueled economic growth, technological innovation and improved quality of life. Data transfer, collaborative working and telecommuting amount to a big competitive advantage.  A 2001 study by an economist and a telecommunications consultant found that widespread broadband adoption could add $500 billion to the economy and create 1.2 million new jobs over a decade.

At the same time, other experts argue that the issues are more complex and this country is much more competitive than the figures suggest. For example, the U.S. currently leads the world in the total number of high-speed users, availability of wireless Internet and computers devoted to online commerce.

There's enormous commercial value for businesses in broadband and American businesses seem to be taking full advantage of it. Looking at the leading business-to-consumer Internet companies, most are American. In business-to-business Internet activity, the U.S. is also unquestionably ahead.

Others argue that most countries ranked above the U.S. in the OECD study are smaller with denser populations that are more easily networked. Population density affects both the cost of deploying cables and the availability of access.

Furthermore, when you consider the number of Americans using the Web, broadband is quickly gaining popularity. More than half the Internet users, about 68 million people, have access to broadband at home, work, or school, either by cable, DSL or other high-speed broadband connections. In the past two years, the number of home broadband connections rose by 18 million, from 30 million to 48 million. Currently, more broadband users have cable but DSL is rapidly closing the gap and contributing to the overall increase.