Ratewatcher Telecom Guide VoLUME 24 | FALL 2013 A PUBLICATION OF THE MAINE OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE 207-287-2445 | TTY 711 | E-MAIL
[email protected] | WWW.MAINE.GOV/meopa FUNDING FOR NEW BRoaDbaND IN MAINE t’s ironic that the united states — the country that largely invented the Internet — has fallen behind much of the rest of the developed world, with re- Ispect to availability, adoption, and speed of Internet service. In terms of the percent- age of households that subscribe to a broadband service, the U. S. ranks 15th. To be fair, the U.S. is more geographically challenging for broadband deployment compared to a more compact and technologically-advanced country, such as Switzerland, which ranks number one in terms of the percentage of households with a broadband connection. But the U.S. also remains behind Canada, which ranks 11th and which shares some of the same geographic and cultural challenges faced by the U.S. Broadband speeds in the U.S. also nesses with fiber-optic cable. On the cost of building out broadband and generally lag behind those of other other hand, with respect to the total getting people to adopt it. In Maine, developed nations. Since speed number of wired broadband connec- nearly 10% of households — mostly depends on the technology of the tions, the U.S. is far ahead of the rest in rural areas — have no access to About the Office of the Public Advocate network, it is significant that the of the world, with over 90 million wired DSL or cable-modem broad- U.S.