U.S. Broadband Availability: June 2010-June 2012. A Broadband Brief.

摘要

In 2010, when NTIA began collecting broadband availability data, the most basic broadband speeds the combination of 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream were widely available across the country. Today, basic broadband services are even more widely available and are now nearly universal in many urban areas. In rural communities, there was and still is significantly less available broadband compared to urban areas. Similarly, some counties and states have persistently had less broadband availability than their peers. Across the country, broadband availability at higher speed levels has increased significantly, although these increases are in the tiers that had the most room to grow. Moreover, far fewer providers offer broadband service at faster speeds tiers, particularly those at or greater than 25 Mbps resulting in less availability and less choice among service providers than is available at slower speed tiers. In fact, while broadband providers use a variety of technologies, including mobile and fixed wireless, DSL, and copper, to provide broadband service at slower speed tiers, broadband service for speeds at or above 25 Mbps is offered almost exclusively through cable and fiber to the premises.