65% of American Internet users are on broadband 35% on dialup and falling

damien

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0512/

In November 2005, broadband penetration in US homes rose 1.13 percentage points to 64.89%, up from 63.76% in October. This increase of 1.13 points is below the average increase in broadband of 1.2 points per month over the last seven months. At the current growth rate of over 1.1 percentage points per month, broadband penetration among active Internet users US homes should break 70% by early March of 2006

eircomtribunal

Charlie Taylor sums up Ireland's Internet performance year rather aptly on ENN:

ENN Year in Review 2005: The broadband saga continues
Wednesday, December 28 2005
by Charlie Taylor

It's been something of a topsy-turvy year in the local telecoms sector over the last 12 months with a number of studies showing that while broadband adoption has risen, Ireland remains in the slow lane when it comes to high-speed internet access.

Earlier in the year there were signs that maybe, just maybe, things were getting a little better on the broadband front. Back in September, ComReg's quarterly Key Data Report revealed that the number of broadband subscribers in the country had almost tripled in the year ending 30 June 2005, rising from 60,000 to 175,000.

Further research issued by the communications regulator a month later seemed to back-up the growing belief that progress had been made by revealing that almost half of Irish SMEs had made the move to broadband, with 21 percent of them having switched in the preceding 12 months.

However, such optimism was to be short-lived as it was followed by a flurry of reports which served to confirm that Ireland is still dragging its heels when it comes to mass-adoption of the technology.

The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland's (CCI) e-business survey, which was released in late November, found that while SMEs were switching to broadband when possible, a significant number of small and medium sized firms simply couldn't avail of it. According to its study, three out of 10 SMEs have been unable to upgrade to broadband mainly due to lack of availability in their areas. Moreover, its research seemed to contradict that of the regulator's by revealing that just 29 percent of companies access the internet via broadband with 33 percent still using a standard phone line.

Just a week later and a second damning report landed which revealed that despite falling prices and the progress of initiatives such as the Metropolitian Area Networks (MANs) rollout, Ireland still ranks 25th out of 32 countries in terms of broadband take-up. The study, which was conducted by Forfas, indicated that DSL coverage in Ireland currently stands at 72 percent, making it the second lowest of the EU-15 countries. Furthermore, the quality of broadband services in Ireland was also found to be less than stellar.

What made the findings even more depressing was that they were merely just the latest in a long line of damning reports that make a mockery of Ireland's desire to be recognised as an IT hub. This year alone, we've also been at the receiving end of reports from OECD and ECTA, the European association of alternative telecom service providers, which revealed that we're still languishing at the bottom of the table alongside IT heavyweights like Slovenia when it comes to broadband adoption.

Although ComReg's most recent quarterly report shows that the number of broadband subscribers in Ireland had grown 229 percent in the year to the end of September to 208,500, there is still widespread criticism that the Government and Eircom are not doing enough.

There's even satire in the article:

Luckily though, Eircom made clear its intention to stop the rot by boldly launching a new strategy to encourage the nation to get up close and personal with broadband. Stunned critics looked on in amazement as the incumbent unleashed a time-based, sometimes-on, high-speed internet service with the promise that it would encourage punters to ditch their dial-up. Reaction to the offering was probably best summed up by Smart Telecom's CEO Oisin Fanning who said at the time, "broadband is about always being online and services like e-mail and messaging work best when you're always online. That's the point of broadband."

P.

damien

"I think broadband is going to continue to dominate the agenda," stated Goggin. "We'll see increased broadband penetration during the next twelve months but whether we'll see increased competition is dependent on a number of factors including how far we get with Local Loop Unbundling."

Remind us again who sold us down the river when they withdrew from the ECAP appeal? Real LLU is just an aspiration and we'll only be set free from our broadband slavery when ComReg see the light and turn from slave-traders to abolitionists.

eircomtribunal

Household DSL figures from Dave Bursteins' dsl letter. Ireland is not mentioned, but we can guestimate we would be at around 15 households per hundred (200 000 DSL connections per 1.3 million households) - oops, only 2/3 of DSL of those are residential: So we are at around 10 per hundred: No worse than China and Poland, easily beating Turkey..

Broadband per 100 Households
South Korea is so close to saturation that the absolute number of DSL lines actually dropped 50,000 this quarter, the first time I’ve observed that in a major country. Hong Kong is nearly as close to saturation...Canada is so far ahead of the U.S. it’s ridiculous to say U.S. policy hasn’t been a major failure.

South Korea 80
Hong Kong 76
Israel 62
Taiwan 61
Singapore 59
Netherlands 54
Monaco 53
Canada 52
Switzerland 51
Denmark 50
Norway 45
Japan 43
Belgium 43
Finland 42
Sweden 39
USA 38
UK 37
France 36
And a few others
Spain 32
Estonia 32
Australia 31
Italy 28
Germany 22
Poland 10
China 10
Turkey 8
Mexico 4
Greece 3
Russia 3
Egypt, India, Pakistan, Indonesia all less than 1.

P.

TempestSabre

When they talk of % coverage how is that calculated. Does it take into account failed lines?

eircomtribunal

A detailed, not only gender related, up-to-date study about Internet usage in the US "How Women and Men Use the Internet" is available as a 50 page pdf here.
So, 21% of men use the net for "adult" material, whereas women...etc.
P.