Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband Internet transitions and policy from around the world
Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society
February 2010 Final Report

Next Generation Connectivity is a final report version of the initial Berkman Study released in October of 2009.  The objective of the study is to conduct a qualitative review of country-by-country case studies on next generation Internet implementation plans either currently under way or under review.  The paper also reviews plans for wireless broadband implementation.

Berkman claims that the initial findings of their 2009 paper are confirmed and extended to the final draft.  Notable among these findings were:

1. U.S. broadband performance has declined over the past decade in comparison to other countries.
2. Declining adoption of:
   • Penetration per household
   • Subscriptions for mobile broadband
   • Availability of nomadic access
   • Advertised speeds verse actually measured speeds
   • Pricing at most tiers of service.
3. Open access policies play a notable role in creating competitive broadband markets.

Countries reviewed in this paper included:

• Australia
• Canada
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Japan
• The Netherlands
• South Korea
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom