Telecom research shows some statistics that may surprise you.

CHART 1.) The United States comes in fifth place when measured by “percentage of population with broadband access.” Surprised? (Germany, Canada, France and the UK led the way.) And when the U.S. goes up against the world in “broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants,” it ranks No. 22. (We were below countries like Korea, Canada, France and the UK.)
What are we doing to make headway? The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) and Broadband Initiatives Program) (BIP) should be helping to stimulate growth in the United States. Even President Obama has directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (the folks behind the broadband stimulus) to help the FCC with a plan to make 500 MHz of spectrum available by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Does SDN Communications have a role in this nationwide effort? SDN was chosen receive a $20 million BTOP broadband stimulus grant to connect rural hospitals, schools, libraries and public safety agencies in South Dakota with 359 miles of fiber. That means 305 new anchor institutions in our state will have SDN’s 10 Megabit per second services. Hopefully the nation will follow South Dakota’s lead for fiber-optic power.

Source: Information Week, July 12, 2010

CHART 2.) Does it surprise you that Cisco topped the charts for both of these best-selling vendor lists? Cisco also came in first for network security hardware. Out of the 19 category charts listed in CRN Magazine, eight of them were led by Cisco or HP. HP was the No. 1 company in color displays, laser printers, desktops and notebooks. As CRN states, “It’s HP and Cisco’s world; we just live in it.”

Source: CRN Magazine, March 2010

Renee Halgerson
Marketing Specialist
SDN Communications