A Different Approach to Measuring High Speed Internet Access

We've already discussed the latest Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report showing the U.S. falling to 15th among the 30 OECD countries in high speed internet access. Now, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has released its own paper, expanding on the OECD statistics.

The ITIF report offers its own rankings of high speed internet access, measuring subscriptions not on a per capita basis--as the OECD does--but on a household basis. It also considers the speed and price of each country's internet connections. This provides a much more complete picture of the state of high speed internet access in the developed world.

According to the ITIF rankings, the overall score for the U.S. places it 12th among the 30 OECD countries, slightly better than its 15th place in the OECD rankings. The breakdown for the U.S. in ITIF's three categories looks like this: 12th in household penetration, 15th in average speed, and 6th in price per bit. Under this framework, the U.S. is still not the global leader in high speed internet access that it should be.

After presenting its rankings, the ITIF paper then considers and dismisses several common critiques leveled against attempts to assess the comparative states of high speed internet access in different countries. This argument is particularly instructive:

[S]ome find fault with the OECD’s measurement of broadband penetration on a per capita basis, claiming that America is actually ahead on an absolute basis. But by the same token, America also leads the OECD in number of non-subscribers, and we certainly do not hear anybody touting that dubious accomplishment.

The fact that the U.S. has the most high speed internet subscribers in the world--58.1 million--is no consolation to the millions and millions more Americans who lack high speed internet access. They're missing out because of the common belief that the private sector alone will provide the proper amount of high speed internet service. As the ITIF report point out, that is simply not the case:

[S]ome claim that rankings do not matter because market forces alone dictate the proper pace of broadband adoption. If more American consumers wanted broadband or consumers needed faster speeds, we would have more and faster broadband… What this argument overlooks is that broadband is different than most items consumers purchase. In the case of broadband, there are market failures that hinder the market from supplying the amount necessary to optimize total social benefits.

The evidence is piling up that the U.S. is failing to provide its citizens with an essential tool for participating in the digital age. If the government doesn’t step up soon, we'll continue to fall further behind.

U.S. Falls Further Behind in High Speed Internet Access (Speed Matters)

OECD Broadband Statistics to December 2006 (OECD)

Assessing Broadband in America: OECD and ITIF Broadband Rankings