US broadband adoption plummets as national plan goes forward

Yesterday, Leichtman Research Group (LRG) released its quarterly study of the nation's cable and telephone providers and found that net broadband additions last quarter were the lowest they have been in eight years, dropping by almost 30% from last year.

"The second quarter has proven to be traditionally weak for broadband growth, but with the market becoming more mature, broadband adds further waned in 2Q 2009," said Leichtman Research Group's President and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman.

According to the Group, the top broadband providers, both fixed and mobile, have 69.9 million subscribers, with cable companies serving about 38 million and telephone companies serving about 31.9 million.

Further, based upon figures from FCC reports, LRG says the top five states in residential broadband penetration as of mid 2008 were New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii, and California. Unsurprisingly, these are frequently also cited as some of the most expensive states in which to live in the United States.

Conversely, the bottom five states for residential broadband penetration were Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, New Mexico, and Montana. It is these states that will reap the largest rewards of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the Broadband stimulus package, where $7.2 billion will go to improving infrastructure in underserved areas of the US, both rural and urban.

In the FCC's new blog dedicated to the National Broadband Plan, Blair Levin, former chief of staff for former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, wrote today, "...Data means nothing if we don't exercise good judgment about what it all means. I'm confident we have assembled a great team who can cut to the chase and develop options and recommendations that are likely to produce what Congress wanted: universal, robust broadband for all Americans and a broadband platform that will enable innovators, entrepreneurs, businesses, non-profits and all levels of governments to find new solutions to our nation's problems."