Comments on: State of U.S. Broadband: Demand Hits Speed Bumps

By: Your Future Broadband Will Cost More, for Less - GigaOM

Your Future Broadband Will Cost More, for Less - GigaOM — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:47:51 +0000

[...] sells network management equipment to both AT&T and PlusNet, says this is to be expected in a mature market, especially in light of the FCC’s efforts to ensure transparency when it comes to delivering [...]

By: Broadband Price Wars Could Hurt Consumers - GigaOM

Broadband Price Wars Could Hurt Consumers - GigaOM — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:03:30 +0000

[...] Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 10:03 AM PT Comments (0) Today the Wall Street Journal drills into another aspect of the maturing broadband market: price wars. But instead of being good for consumers, in the end these may actually end up hurting [...]

By: U.S. presidential candidate McCain unveils his own tech policy proposal » VentureBeat

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:17:37 +0000

[...] access to rural and low-income areas (meanwhile, as the economy has worsened, more people have been cutting back on this expense). This proposal sounds pretty good for libertarian-minded Silicon Valley, so far. [...]

By: Comcast Earnings Prove Broadband Growth Slowing - GigaOM

Comcast Earnings Prove Broadband Growth Slowing - GigaOM — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:32:50 +0000

[...] 2008 at 6:32 AM PT Comments (0) As earnings season continues, it’s clear that the U.S. is filling up on broadband. Within the past week AT&T and Verizon reported slowing broadband growth, and today Comcast saw [...]

By: Comcast Earnings Prove Broadband Growth Slowing - GigaOM

Comcast Earnings Prove Broadband Growth Slowing - GigaOM — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:32:50 +0000

By: John Thacker

John Thacker — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:22:27 +0000

In comparison, Pew’s report shows that 35 percent of dial-up users want broadband prices to decline further — fat chance of that happening when most carriers are dreaming of tiered Internet plans.

Again, let’s please try to keep the words “tiered” and “metered” separate.

“Tiered” - “pay an additional $X per month to increase speed.” This is a common offering with almost all broadband providers.

“Metered” - “instead of unlimited, pay per minute/hour/GB/whatever, perhaps after a certain point.” This is still very uncommon in broadband, outside of a few examples (such as Cornell’s on-campus network, which charges for transfers from outside Cornell past the first few GB per month.)

Yes, in some cases there could be tiers for how much is “included” per month with metered broadband, like with wireless minutes. But the significant change is the metering, not the tiering.

Anyway, these numbers are something that I’ve been pointing out for a long time whenever Om or others talk about the “state of US broadband.” The problem is that most people really don’t want to pay more for their Internet connection, and most people tend to be happy with what they have currently. Dial-up users are happy with dial-up. Broadband users don’t want to pay any more per month for a faster connection.

What these numbers show is that the state of US broadband is not about availability. Most of those dial-up users could get broadband, even $10-$20/month 768kb broadband, but they don’t. Most of those broadband users could right now pay $10 more per month for double the speed, but they don’t. It just shows the disconnect between Om, me, and other people who post here– we don’t really consider 768kb/s to be broadband, but a huge slice of people are perfectly happy with it and don’t want to change if it costs any money.

That’s not a recipe for increased broadband investment. It’s not necessarily a call to have the next administration invest in broadband either, unless you’re absolutely sure that a bunch of people don’t know that they’d really like faster broadband, and are wrong about their preferences. (Or, alternatively, you just know that you want faster broadband and you want those other people who don’t care to help pay for it.)

By: links for 2008-07-04 « Dmartel’s Weblog

links for 2008-07-04 « Dmartel’s Weblog — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:33:36 +0000

[...] State of U.S. Broadband: Demand Hits Speed Bumps - GigaOM [...]

By: Media & Entertainment News : D|ALL THINGS DIGITAL | You Can Have My 28.8 Kbps Penril When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:12:41 +0000

[...] (24 percent), but 19 percent said that nothing can convince them to get broadband. Which means broadband growth in the states may be nearing a plateau. “… Solving the supply problem where there are availability gaps is only going to go so [...]

By: Stanislav Shalunov

Stanislav Shalunov — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:20:12 +0000

I looked at the report and still don’t understand how the numbers are supposed to add up.

55% have broadband at home, 10% have dialup, 27% have no connection.

Where is the other 8%?

By: » Online Communities anno dazumal « Communityguru

» Online Communities anno dazumal « Communityguru — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:48:47 +0000

[...] 03.07.2008: Hatte die genauen Zahlen nicht mehr im Kopf, aber Dank Om Malik wurde ich auf den neusten PEW/Internet-Bereicht aufmerksam, vor allem auf dieses [...]

By: You Can Have My 28.8Kbps Penril When You Pry it From My Cold, Dead Hands | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:26:58 +0000

By: Jamalystic

Jamalystic — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:14:34 +0000

Really ridiculous that a nation that boast of inventing the internet is now lagging behind!! This means steps has to be taken by the coming administration to ensure that something is done to alleviate the situation as this article pointed out: US Is in Danger of Losing Internet Leadership(http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=576&doc_id=145812&F_src=flftwo)

By: Link: State of U.S. Broadband: Demand Hits Speed Bumps - GigaOM | Nyquist Capital

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:05:01 +0000

[...] State of U.S. Broadband: Demand Hits Speed Bumps - GigaOM [...]

By: Harsch

Harsch — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:24:44 +0000

I am guessing the rural providers serving farming communities (eg. in Iowa) are not feeling the pinch as much with the run up in commodity prices. There are always pockets of opportunities despite any macro trend / stat.

By: Czar

Czar — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:00:45 +0000

This is a bad event for smaller broadband service providers. It’s a pity how these establishments got affected with the winding down of the US’ economy.

By: gregory

gregory — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:08 +0000

i’ll eat less before i will cut back broadband

one thing these big players could do, fatten the pipes, speed it up