The highest penetration of broadband (subscribers per household) in the world is South Korea with something like 93 % penetration. In fact in Seoul I believe it exceeds 100%. If I remember, the US just hit 50% penetration last year, so building out broadband, especially to rural areas, is a top priority of the Obama administration. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes $7.2 billion for broadband buildouts. But distributing this amount of money is not that simple. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is responsible
for distributing $4.7 billion in grants to deploy high-speed Internet to unserved and underserved regions.
Massachussetts seems to be ahead of the game, because the state passed a bill in 2008 to created the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, which is a quasi-public agency that’s supposed to expand broadband availability by pursuing opportunities, such as stimulus funds. The state intends to do this by a government private sector partnership.
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