The National Cable & Telecommunications Association blog did a series of posts back in February about the OECD study. There seems to be three basic criticisms. First, businesses in the US have a higher proportion of “special access” lines than other countries ranked, and these are not counted in the statistics, while businesses with normal DSL lines are counted. Second, the OECD statistics are focused on “connections per 100 subscribers” rather than proportion of subscribers who have an Internet connect. The result is to penalize the US, which has a larger-than-average household size (all of whom can share a single Internet connection) while giving an edge to countries with smaller household sizes. Finally, the report relies on advertised speeds and prices, which the NCTA suggests exaggerates Japan’s lead over a metric that focuses on the actual available speeds in that country. Obviously, the NCTA has an agenda to promote so it’s worth taking the criticisms with a grain of salt, but they’re interesting in any event. Thanks to reader Wyatt Ditzler for the link.
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