This from the FCC yesterday:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 21, 2011
Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission has released its latest reports on Internet access service connections and telephone subscribership in the U.S.
Titled Internet Access Services and Local Telephone Competition, the two reports are based on data submitted by carriers every six months on FCC Form 477. The reports track changes at the state and national level in the number of subscribers to Internet access service in 72 different combinations of speed tiers, and the number of wireline, mobile and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone subscribers.
Both reports include data collected by the FCC through June 30, 2010.
Highlights from the Internet Access Services report include the following:
- 60% of connections were slower than the benchmark 4 megabits per second (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.
- 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.