Broadband In The News

"A new survey by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) reveals that small rural communications providers are deploying fiber at an impressive pace, bringing faster high speed broadband service to America's rural communities.

NTCA's 2009 Broadband/Internet Availability Survey found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents with a fiber deployment strategy intend to offer fiber to the node to more than 75% of their customer base by 2011. Fifty-five percent plan to offer fiber to the home to more than half their customers in that same time frame-more than doubled from just 26% last year.
Rural areas are seeing significant gains in broadband speeds, primarily due to the increased fiber availability in their communities, according to the survey. Fifty-three percent of respondents indicated their customers can now receive broadband service of between 3 and 6 Mbps (up from 46% last year), and 39% can receive service in excess of 6 Mbps-an increase from just 25% one year ago. Survey respondents indicated an increase in take rates for the higher broadband speed tiers as well."