[LINK] Broadband Around the World

[Richard Chirgwin]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Broadband Around the World
> 
> Catherine Rampell, May 20th 2009
> 
>  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/broadband-around-the-world/
> 
> 
> The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released 
> its latest data on broadband access     www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband
> 
> Eg, Broadband Subscribers Per 100 Inhabitants, Dec 2008:  Australia is
> the sixteenth country at 25 people per 100. Their OECD average is 22.5
> 
> Eg, Broadband Average Monthly Subscription Price $US, Oct 2008. Aussie
> is twenty eighth at $56.21/month, and the OECD average noted is $44.31.

Subscription price averages are a meaningless measure that fail to take into
account the distribution of users across different plans.

To demonstrate this, get some real numbers. Eg, from the Telstra annual report:

June 2008 subs - 3,269,000
Income to June 2008 - $1.805 billion
Approx ARPU - $A46 per month
In USD - $34.50 per month

So: the ARPU for the largest ISP in the country is more than US $20 below the
"average" subscription price.

We constantly encourage politicians to seek "OECD position" in broadband policy,
which is just nonsense. Moreover, since it's so easy to play "spot the bollocks"
in the broadband data, why would I give any better credence to the OECD's
education, health, taxation, or any other of its pronouncements?

RC
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Stephen
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