Regulator questions broadband rankings

Republican FCC regulator Robert McDowell today cautioned the agency to use care in drawing international comparisons as it crafts a national strategy to increase broadband Internet access in the United States.

"If done properly, such a study could prove to be highly valuable," he told the Phoenix Center, a nonprofit think tank. "If, however, such a comparison were prepared using poor data or inferior methodologies, it could be misleading and be used to justify potentially harmful public policy," he said, encouraging reliance on statistics from many sources.

McDowell criticized rankings compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that list the United States as 15th in worldwide broadband penetration. The FCC commissioner said such comparisons are flawed because they are based on per-capita, not per-household, connections.

Proponents of wider government involvement in promoting broadband access often cite the OECD to show that the United States lags behind Denmark, Iceland, South Korea and other countries. The FCC, headed by Democratic Chairman Julius Genachowski, plans to submit its national broadband plan to Congress in February.