OECD hits back at broadband stats inaccuracy claims

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 17 May 2007 06:42

IT Industry - Market

In a letter to iTWire, OECD economist, Taylor Reynolds, has responded to claims by research firm Market Clarity that  the OECD's regular reports comparing broadband uptake in member nations are based on inaccurate source data. According to the OECD, Market Clarity's report "has serious methodological and factual errors".
From:
Taylor Reynolds
Economist
Communication Infrastructures and Services Policy
OECD

The OECD welcomes informed criticism on all the information and communication technology indicators it produces in co-operation with its member countries. We routinely field inquiries and queries on methodology across all the data we publish to assist policy makers.

The recent report by the consultancy firm Market Clarity,  focusing on one of the indicators we publish, does not fall into the category of informed criticism and has serious methodological and factual errors. Unfortunately, Market Clarity did not contact the OECD or offer us the possibility to comment on their report. We would have been able to clarify many of their misunderstandings as well as correct the factual and computational errors that appear in the report.

Market Clarity's omission of current, official data sources and subsequent estimation of broadband totals undermines the statistical validity of the report's findings. In addition, Market Clarity has chosen to adopt a different methodology for counting broadband (eg including 3G) than the OECD but then applies it inconsistently. Finally, Market Clarity is also inconsistent across countries in how it attempts to remove connections slower than 256kbps.

The OECD publishes statistics on broadband subscribers every six months. Data on broadband penetration by households are also published. These data are supplied by our experts in Member countries ranging across regulatory authorities, the Ministries responsible for communications policy and official statistical agencies. In Australia, for example, data are sourced from the ACCC and ABS. We also confer with the leading firms in each market in gathering data on prices and the services on offer as well as collecting subscriber data. The OECD broadband data are also reviewed by government officials (ministry officials, telecommunication regulators, statistical agencies) before their release.