May 10, 2017
According to the Pew Research Center, 13 percent of Americans do not use the Internet. Pew notes that this number has not changed much “over the past three years, despite recent government and social service programs to encourage internet adoption.” (We’ll add to that landscape an increasing number of municipal broadband networks.) The question is: …
September 29, 2016
While access to the Internet and to high-speed broadband is nearly universal in the United States, one-fifth of Americans (26 million households) still do not use it. Why? The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, attempted to answer that question in a report issued this week. …
July 5, 2016
A new report makes it clears that Internet speeds continue to improve in the United States. According to The Hill, “The average internet speed in the United States has made significant gains over the past year …” The Hill’s report is based on Akamai Technology’s “State of the Internet” report for the first quarter of …
March 23, 2016
Akamai this week released its latest “State of the Internet” report and, according to MediaPost.Com, “Year-over-year, global markets experienced strong growth in average connection speeds and overall broadband adoption.” A ZDNet headline proclaimed, “The Internet is getting faster, a lot faster.” The report found average global connection speeds rose 23 percent from the fourth quarter …
March 30, 2015
According to Akamai Technology’s most recent quarterly report, peak broadband speeds in the U.S. increased 16 percent between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the fourth quarter of 2014. (The year-over-year average increase across the globe was 20 percent.) The average peak speed was 49.4 Mbps. The average connection speed overall was up 15 percent …
March 9, 2015
The United States government isn’t the only one considering reclassifying the Internet as a public utility. Our friends in the United Kingdom are as well. And, like in the U.S., not everyone is excited about the idea. According to USwitch.Com, this week the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), Britain’s “leading advisory group on broadband,” issued a …
January 9, 2015
According to the most recent quarterly report from Akamai Technologies, the average peak Internet speed in the U.S. increased 35 percent between the third quarter of 2013 and 2014. Unfortunately, the report also found the U.S. ranks 17th in the world in terms of average speed with several smaller and less wealthy countries, including Romania, …
March 6, 2014
This week Minnesota State Senator Matt Schmit introduced a bill that would grant $100 million in matching funds to “local” broadband projects in rural areas. As Minnesota Public Radio notes, local utilities would be eligible for these funds. MPR’s article suggests that, while private companies would be eligible, because of the strings attached to the …
November 19, 2013
According to a March 2013 report by Charles Davidson and Michael Santorelli at New York University Law School, private broadband providers invested more than $1 trillion in broadband between 1996 and 2010 and $66 billion in 2011. Despite the proliferation in government-owned broadband networks, the private sector is still the primary driving force behind the …
September 30, 2013
A couple updates on two government-owned networks we’ve written about before. First, according to The Gainesville Sun, the 15-county North Florida Broadband Authority has added “few new paying customers” since March and is now seeking a bailout from a private company. The newspaper writes, NFBA leaders are “negotiating with a private company to operate and …
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