GAO study on broadband deployment questions FCC statistics.(General Accounting Office)

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released a new report regarding broadband deployment in the US. ["Broadband Deployment Is Extensive throughout the United States," available at http://www.gao. gov/new.items/d06426.pdf.] About 30 million US households purchase, or have adopted, broadband service, but it is difficult to assess the extent of gaps in the availability of broadband in local markets.

Using a survey of US households, the GAO found that 28 percent, or about 30 million, subscribed to broadband service in 2005. In addition, 30 percent of surveyed households subscribed to a dial-up Internet service, and 41 percent did not access the Internet from their homes. Among households subscribing to broadband service, the GAO found roughly an equal share taking cable modem and digital subscriber hue (DSL) service, the two primary broadband services at this time.

Households in rural areas were less likely to subscribe to broadband service, compared with households in urban and suburban areas. On a semiannual basis, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducts an extensive data collection effort using its Form 477 to assess the availability of advanced telecommunications service in the United States. As of July 2005, the FCC had found that 99 percent of Americans live in the 95 percent of zip codes that have at least one broadband provider reporting to be serving at least one subscriber. These data have suggested that deployment of broadband networks has been extensive.

For its zip-code level data, however, the GAO report noted that the FCC collects data based on where subscribers are served, not where providers have deployed broadband infrastructure. Based on its own analysis, the GAO found that the FCC's data may not provide a highly accurate depiction of deployment of broadband infrastructures for residential service in some areas.

A variety of market and technical factors, as well as federal and state government efforts and access to resources at the local level, have influenced the deployment of broadband infrastructure. Most importantly, companies contemplating the deployment of broadband infrastructure consider both the cost to deploy and operate a broadband network and the expected demand for broadband ...