U.S. FCC Broadband Definition and Blog

The U.S. FCC is requesting comments on how to define what broadband is. It breaks the definition down into three categories:

• Form, Characteristics, and Performance Indicators
• Thresholds – typically minimums
• Updates that address the fact that a static definition will fail to address changing needs and habits

This part of the FCC's efforts to create a national broadband plan by February 17, 2010.

The FCC has started a blog called BlogBand discussing its broadband activities.

It appears that the FCC is putting needed attention on broadband in the U.S. It is about time. Broadband in the U.S. is behind leading European and Asian countries by every measure.

Ofcom UK Communications Report

Ofcom issued a 334 page Communications Report that discusses TV, Radio, Telecommunications, and convergence. It has a lot of interesting information. Several points that stuck out were:

• For the first time since Oftel started to collect market data in 1992/93, operator-reported
  revenues from telecoms services did not increase in 2008. Total revenues were
  unchanged at £39.5bn, with increasing retail revenues being offset by falling wholesale
  revenues.
• Telecoms services accounted for 3.2% of total household expenditure in 2008, down
  from 3.4% in 2007. Telecoms spend fell by 5.2% in real terms over the year, the largest
  annual decline since spend on telecoms services began to fall in 2006.
• Nearly two-thirds (65%) of UK households had a fixed-line broadband connection in Q1
  2009, up from 58% a year previously.
• BT’s share of retail fixed voice calls to UK geographic numbers fell to under 50% for the
  first time in 2008. Increasing use of wholesale line rental (WLR) and local loop
  unbundling (LLU) services contributed to the erosion of BT’s retail share
  

We should all thank Ofcom for continuing to publish these comprehensive reports that shed light on important trends.