JULY 21, 2010 • In a new finding the Federal Communications Commission reported that between 14 and 24 million people in the U.S. do not have access to a broadband Internet connection, and those consumers are not expected to get high-speed access anytime soon. The determination was made in the commission’s sixth annual report to Congress concerning broadband deployment.

Impact: What surprised us was that the number of people that can’t get broadband actually seemed surprisingly low. The U.S. is a large country with many isolated rural areas. However between 92-95% has access to broadband if they so choose (in the report broadband was defined as speeds of at least 4 Mbps). Increasingly it appears that the U.S. is becoming a broadband nation. However, as the recently released report from Pando Networks shows, broadband penetration and performance is closely tied to income and density of population. Large urban areas simply have faster performance and broadband performance is much stronger along the densely populated Eastern seaboard. As the report concluded, reaching those final people for universal coverage will be a “massive undertaking.”