OECD cops it from the US over broadband stats

Stuart Corner
Monday, 30 April 2007 10:07

IT Industry - Strategy

The US Government's coordinator of international communications and information policy has written to the OECD expressing concern over the OECD's methodology for collecting broadband statistics.

The OECD's latest six monthly reports showed the US falling from 12th to 15th place out of 30 OECD member economies, a result which produced a number of 'soul-searching' articles in the US press on the state of broadband and what needed to be done to improve matters.

The letter follows concerns raised about the accuracy of the OECD's figures for broadband in Australia. However the issues raised by the US are more fundamental and a number of these would be relevant in Australia's case.

In his letter, to OECD secretary general, Angel Gurria, Ambassador David A Gross said: "we are concerned about the methodology on which the new statistics were based, and their failure to capture important factors, particularly their reliance on user subscriptions as the measure of broadband use. For this analysis to be sensitive to the variance in OECD members' demographics, geography and technological trends, we believe the OECD must take into consideration, among other important factors, the remarkable non-subscriber access to broadband services achieved in the United States and in other member economies.

"Without giving recognition to this development [millions of people who are gaining access to broadband services through multiple platforms and access points] we are concerned that the current OECD 'subscriber statistics' standing alone fail to account for tens of millions of Americans who access and use broadband services and thereby do not reflect the state of broadband not only in the United States but also in other OECD members as well."

As an example Gross said: "The United States has more Internet and broadband users and more Wi-Fi hot spots than any other country in the world despite larger land mass and more rural areas than most. The total number of Wi-Fi Hotspots in the United States, for example, is estimated to be about 50 thousand, many on college campuses, reflecting the fact that college communities around the United States are enjoying unbounded and unprecedented access to broadband services. As a result, the OECD analysis would seem to exclude literally millions of student age users of broadband services in the United States and presumably elsewhere because they are not 'subscribers' under OECD terms."

Gross also claimed that "the OECD report apparently does not fully account for millions of government workers who have broadband access on their desks or for the millions of employees at large corporations." And he added: "We are also witnessing the development of municipal Wi-Fi networks that broaden public access to the Internet, a trend not currently reflected in the OECD's figures."

Gross said that the US would submit a contribution to the OECD on the ICCP Broadband Study "detailing three other elements critical to the totality of the OECD's examination of broadband penetration and use rates. We intend to ensure that these perspectives are not lost as we embark on the preparations for the 2008 OECD ministerial on the 'The Future of the Internet Economy' to be held in Korea in 2008."