According to the latest data from the Federal Communications Commission, high speed access in the US has grown by 250% since August 2000. The latest figues, to June 2001, reveal that there are now 9.6 million high speed subscribers in the US which signifies a 36% increase during H1 2001.
7.8 million of these subscribers are residential or small business customers a 51% increase during H1 2001 and 4.3 million of these are advanced service subscribers. 7.0% of US households subscribed to high speed services, up from 4.7% in january 2001 and 1.6% in August 2000.
ADSL use increased by 36% during the first half of 2001 although high speed lines in service over satellite or fixed wireless technologies increased at the fastest rate, 73%, during the first half of the year 2001, to nearly 200 thousand.
Of the 5.9 million subscribers to advanced services, 3.3 million subscribed to cable-based services – a 52% increase over the first six months of 2001– and 1 million subscribed to asymmetric DSL – a 48% increase over the first six months of 2001, whilst the remainder subscribed to other technologies.
The FCC is charged, by the US Government, with inquiring as to whether advanced telecommunications capability “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion”. This is the third report that the FCC has published.
The FCC uses the term high speed for those services with over 200 kbps capability in at least one direction. The term high-speed services includes advanced telecommunications capability. The FCC uses the term advanced telecommunications capability to describe services and facilities with an upstream (customer-to-provider) and downstream (provider-to-customer) transmission speed exceeding 200 kilobits per second (kbps).
