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About a week ago the FTTH Council run a webinar presenting research findings on the socio-economic impact of fiber broadband in Bulgaria. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch it live so I found it, kudos to Pauline, on vimeo. You can watch the presentation at the end of the post, but before that, here's a quick summary of what is going down in the country: New regulatory measures and stricter requirements for operating a telecommunications networks brings to the fore a growing trend of consolidations among ISPs. Internet impact is highlighted especially in terms of access to information, working conditions and practical life Percentage of satisfied broadband customers: 85% of all FTTB users, 75% of cable users and 60% of all DSL users. FTTB encourages tele-working 66% of the Bulgarians consider that the availability of a broadband connection influences the selection of residence

Broadband is vital to the economic and social sustainability of rural communities. Ensuring the availability of fast and reliable access in all rural communities is a key priority for Defra and we are working closely with DCMS, which has overall responsibility for broadband policy and delivery. Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is responsible for managing the broadband rollout programme, and government funding of £530m for rural broadband to 2015.

"In response to a Congressional directive to inquire whether broadband "is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion," the FCC concluded in its Sixth Broadband Deployment Report that between 14 and 24 million Americans still lack access to broadband, and the immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak."

"I read a lot of reports on how to encourage broadband adoption. There are three kinds of reports - one focuses on getting folks at the far end of the digital divide to use technology, one focuses on creating super users (think GigU) and the other encourages average users to use more broadband - or faster broadband. No Field of Dreams: Eliminating the Waiting Game and Driving Uptake focuses on the upping the use mainstream users. Well, more specifically, it focuses on how to get those users to upgrade their subscriptions to fiber. Or as they say in the report to get customers to put their money where the providers mouth is."

"BT is investing £2.5bn to roll-out superfast broadband to two-thirds of UK consumer and business premises by the end of 2014. Regeneris Consulting was commissioned to assess the potential economic benefits of BT's investment in superfast broadband for businesses and focussed on four case study areas: A rural area in the UK: Norfolk and Suffolk A UK town: Caerphilly A UK city: Sunderland The capital city: London The report and its observations builds on Regeneris' experience in the production of number of studies assessing the economic impact of broadband investments throughout the UK. Their work has informed business planning and bid development, including a number of the current crop of BDUK projects and projects to help secure investment from European funding sources. The 'Key Facts regarding BT's investment in Broadband' and the 'Summary of key observations' from the report are below. "

"For more on the potential of broadband in general and the National Broadband Network in particular, the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society's Annual Report and Symposium presentation is well worth a look. Three slides from the presentation caught my eye. They capture the importance of concurrency (multiple simultaneous accesses to multiple applications, something I've discussed in this previous post) very well, and also nicely illustrate the wide range of applications that next generation access can support: "

The growing popularity of connected TVs and efforts to build interactive programs will drive the next wave of broadband demand. That future and the continued growth of devices in the home are all reasons that Verizon has launched a 300 Mbps broadband tier and will continue pushing the speeds on its fiber-to-the-home network.

"In May 2012 OFCOM undertook extensive research into domestic broadband speeds and discovered an apparent average user speed across the UK of a healthy 9 Mb per second. This is a massive 2.5 times faster than the average residential broadband speeds recorded in a similar OFCOM study in 2008 of some 3.6 Mb per second. However as ever with statistics, you need to understand the data behind the figures to draw much in the way of conclusions. How do these statistics manifest themselves to the end user using fixed line broadband services?"

Google may be rolling out 1Gbps Internet access to Kansas City, but there are about 19 million American households and businesses that still lack any access to broadband, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Most of them are in rural areas, and some will soon benefit from broadband projects financed by one of the last pillars of the FCC's National Broadband Plan: the Connect America Fund. "I'm pleased to announce today that nearly 400,000 residents and businesses in rural communities who currently lack access to high-speed Internet will gain access within the next three years," declared FCC Chair Julius Genachowski on Thursday.

During April-to-June 2012, AT&T & Verizon lost 94,000 broadband subscribers in total. While they continue to sign up people for fiber and higher speed broadband, they are losing DSL subscribers really fast which is good news for cable broadband companies.

"uring April-to-June 2012, AT&T & Verizon lost 94,000 broadband subscribers in total. While they continue to sign up people for fiber and higher speed broadband, they are losing DSL subscribers really fast which is good news for cable broadband companies."

Tomorrow, the President will sign an Executive Order to make broadband construction along Federal roadways and properties up to 90 percent cheaper and more efficient. Currently, the procedures for approving broadband infrastructure projects on properties controlled or managed by the Federal Government-including large tracts of land, roadways, and more than 10,000 buildings across the Nation-vary depending on which agency manages the property. The new Executive Order will ensure that agencies charged with managing Federal properties and roads take specific steps to adopt a uniform approach for allowing broadband carriers to build networks on and through those assets and speed the delivery of connectivity to communities, businesses, and schools.

This document sets out best practice examples in planning an investment of public funds in broadband projects. The guidance provided is targeted at all Managing Authorities  in the  European Union (EU). The guide has been prepared by Analysys Mason on behalf of the European Commission (EC), and details the issues associated with investment planning and procurement that must be considered by any Managing Authority that is aiming to implement an EU-funded broadband project. 

"Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) aims to provide high-speed Internet broadband access to all Australians and transform Australia into one of the world's top five digital economies by 2020. The NBN's model of universal and equal access to information flows supported by a nationwide infrastructure network stands out from the dominant scenario of profit-driven, tiered models of communication infrastructure networks. This paper analyses the economic and social value of information as a basic utility in contemporary society and argues that the NBN is an essential component in a nationwide project of digital citizenship, while highlighting the need for strong and effective policies to support it. The policies underlying the NBN and the technical aspects of its infrastructure network are compared with the Coalition's alternative plan and public and private initiatives from other countries. It is argued that, in order to realise the full potential of the NBN, its future strategies must take into account the current networked practices of Australian citizens and be supported by an equally universal project of digital literacy. Finally, examples of current practices and future benefits of the implementation of high-speed broadband access are presented."

Netflix related traffic accounts for almost a third of all information downloaded in North America during peak usage periods, according to Sandvine, experts in analyzing Internet and broadband trends.   During the most recent period, Netflix's share of Internet traffic increased 44% from the last Sandvine report seven months ago, when Netflix represented approximately 20% of peak download traffic.  In the current report, Netflix traffic was responsible for 29.7% of all Internet related activity, surpassing even peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technology BitTorrent. This makes Netflix traffic the single largest broadband consumer. When Netflix traffic is added to other real-time entertainment services, including Google's YouTube, the total consumption climbs to nearly half (49.2%) of all North American Internet traffic during peak periods.  The other applications rounding out the top five are BitTorrent (17%), HTTP (17%), YouTube (10%), and Flash Video (4%).  In comparison Facebook only consumed 2% and ITunes just over 3%.

"At the time I began community broadband consulting in 2005, one of the stated core benefits of broadband was to improve economic development. Unfortunately, some of the biggest champions of the economic value proposition don't get it right, and big bucks being spent for broadband may leave communities shortchanged."

Mobile broadband has a higher positive impact than fixed broadband on economic growth, particularly in developing nations, according to a new report from the World Bank and infoDev, its technology entrepreneurship and innovation program. The report recommended a number of supply- and demand-side policies to foster increased adoption of mobile broadband in markets worldwide.

Despite repeated provider claims that usage-based billing will save customers money on their broadband bill, new evidence shows the exact opposite is true. Broadband prices for metered broadband across Canada are rising, not falling, and now outpace pricing in the United States.

"It can be hard to figure out the real economic benefits of broadband, which stops some politicians from ever investing in it. But if you define your scope and plan for additional programs to boost the effectiveness of a broadband investment, you'll see results."

Expanding wireless broadband coverage to 98 percent of Americans remains a key priority for the Obama administration in its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. To help do this, President Obama has proposed a boost in funding for the Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, two agencies leading an effort to increase the availability of spectrum needed to help expand wireless broadband to most Americans. Some of this new spectrum would come from empowering the FCC authority to auction off spectrum wheedled out of broadcasters.