A new broadband usage survey released by the Federal Communications Commission says that, as of June 30, 2010, 60 percent of high speed Internet connections in the United States were slower than 4Mbps—that's the download speed identified by the agency as the "minimum bandwidth generally required to accommodate today’s uses: high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video."
In addition, growth in fixed (wireline) broadband connections "appears to have flattened" at one percent by that date. Fixed links grew to 82 million subscriptions, up from 81 the previous year.
On the other hand, wireless connections shot up by 27 percent, from 56 to 71 million.
Compared to the typical
The data is all found in Internet Access Services: Status as of June 30, 2010 (PDF). Here's the relevant chart, from which the 60 percent metric was extrapolated.
The pie chart indicates that, of almost 153 million connections, 31 percent were greater than or equal to 6Mbps. Nine percent were greater than or equal to 3Mbps but less than 6Mbps. But sixty percent streamed below 3Mbps, much lower than the 4Mbps standard that the FCC cites.
Too high or too low?
It should be noted that a great deal of controversy swirls around that 4Mbps figure. The National Broadband Plan calls it "comparable to what the typical broadband subscriber receives today, and what many consumers are likely to use in the future, given past growth rates," thus worthy of being the nation's universal access rate by 2020.
Some critics say 4Mbps is too high a benchmark goal. The cable industry hit the ceiling when the FCC concluded that broadband rollout isn't happening quickly enough, using 4Mbps as a standard.
But consumer advocates say it's too modest a number. "What is the FCC's rationale for a vision that appears to be firmly rooted in the second tier of countries?" asked Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) in a set of pointed questions for the agency posed last year.
In any event, the data for this report is based on advertised "up to" speed figures. "It is possible that the purchased service will not operate at its advertised speed at all times," the document acknowledges.
The FCC is currently conducting a survey comparing actual versus advertised ISP speeds. Ofcom, the United Kingdom's telecom regulator, found stark discrepancies between actual and advertised throughputs in its latest probe, especially with DSL providers.
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