FCC: Broadband adoption still shows gaps, slow speeds

The FCC just released its semi-annual Internet Access Services report, with details of Internet access services as of June 2012.

Among the highlights:

• Less than half (53 million) of U.S. households have a fixed Internet connection that meets the FCC definition of broadband (3 Mbps downstream/768 kbps upstream)
• States with the highest fixed broadband subscription rates include Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Delaware, D.C., New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington (all above 60 percent)
• States with the lowest fixed broadband subscription rates include Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina (all below 30 percent)
• Slow speeds persist. Only 1/3 of all Internet connections deliver downstream speeds greater than 6 Mbps. Only 5 percent (11.9 million connections) deliver speeds greater than 25 Mbps.
• A growing number of broadband connections are wireless, but the speeds are slower than wired connections. There are 43 million wireless broadband connections and 57 million wired broadband connections. There are no wireless connections that deliver higher speeds (greater than 10 Mbps), compared to 47 million wireline connections that exceed these speeds.

While the U.S. is making progress, there is still a long way to go to catch up to other advanced economies.

Internet Access Services: Status as of June 30, 2012 (FCC report, May, 2013)
 
Rural-urban broadband divide persists (Speed Matters, May 17, 2013)