The days of subscriber growth in fixed broadband connections in the U.S. came to an end in 2010, according to newly released FCC reports on Internet Access Services and Local Telephone Competition. The two reports are based on data submitted by carriers as of 30-June-2010.
Highlights from the Internet Access Services report include the following:
- 60% of connections were slower than the benchmark 4 Mbps download speed identified by the FCC as the minimum bandwidth generally required to accommodate today's uses: high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video.
- At mid-year 2010, 63% of reportable connections (or 96.9 million connections) were slower than
768 kbps in the upstream direction, 18% (or 27.7 million connections) were at least 768 kbps in
the upstream direction but slower than 1.5 Mbps, and 19% (or 28.4 million connections) were at
least 1.5 mbps in the upstream direction. - Growth of fixed broadband service appears to have flattened at 1% in the first half of
2010, to 82 million connections.
Highlights from the Local Telephone Competition report including the following:
- Interconnected VoIP grew by 21% between June 2009 and June 2010.
- Conventional switched access lines (i.e., traditional wireline telephone lines) decreased
by 8% between June 2009 and June 2010. - 28% of all residential wireline connections were interconnected VoIP as of June 2010.
- An estimated 77% of interconnected VoIP subscribers received service through a cable
provider. - The number of subscriptions to wireless phone service grew by 5% in the year.
