Percentage of households with access to NGA coverage.
(Defined as broadband connection in excess of 25 Mbps).
82%
54%
27
18
Investment in broadband infrastructure as measured in U.S. dollars
$562
$244
Percentage of rural households with NGA coverage.
(U.S. defined rural as areas with fewer than 500 people per square mile).
(Europe defines rural as areas with fewer than 100 people per square kilometer).
(U.S. defines rural as areas with fewer than 500 people per square mile).
(Europe defines rural as areas with fewer than 100 people per square kilometer).
The increasing availability of high-quality data has the promise to effect a sea change in broadband policy.
Debates that previously relied primarily on anecdotal evidence and personal assertions of vision for the future can now take place on a sound empirical footing.
Christopher S. Yoo is Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science and Founding Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on exploring the insights that the principles of network engineering and the economics of imperfect competition can provide into the regulation of the Internet and other forms of electronic communications. He has been a leading voice in the "network neutrality" debate that has dominated Internet policy over the past several years. He is also pursuing research on copyright theory, standard essential patents, as well as the history of presidential power.
Both the European Commission (EC) and the U.S. government have recently conducted or commissioned studies providing detailed information about the extent of broadband coverage as of the end of 2011 and 2012. These studies report coverage levels for a wide range of speed tiers and technologies in both urban and rural areas. Although the European mapping study focuses on Next Generation Access (NGA), which it defines to be service providing download speeds of at least 30 Mbps, a close analysis reveals that the study actually reports data for 25 Mbps service. Data from these studies served as the basis for analysis in this report.
