FCC: Broadband subs jump

The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau said this week that about 16% of occupied housing units nationwide had a high-speed Internet access line in service last year, compared with 2% in 1999. About 20 million homes and businesses were connected to the Internet via a high-speed line at the end of 2002, compared with 2.8 million at the end of 1999. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said the data “seems like good news,” but questioned the study’s methodology. The FCC requires service providers with at least 250 high-speed lines in service to report twice each year a list of zip codes where it has at least one subscriber to its high-speed service.

“Finding one high-speed subscriber in a zip code and counting it as service available throughout is not a credible way to proceed,” Copps said. He added that the FCC’s definition of a high-speed line–200 kb/s transport speed in one direction–“may be just a little passé.”