Market Clarity questions OECD table

Sydney-based telecommunications analyst firm Market Clarity has published an analysis of the OECD’s broadband “league table” which casts doubt on the accuracy and methodology of the international assessment.

The analysis, based on raw data sourced from national statisticians and telecommunications regulators, concludes that the OECD mis-reported broadband subscriber numbers for 28 out of its 30 member nations in its June 2006 analysis.

Shara Evans, chief executive officer of Market Clarity said: “The broadband debate in Australia is of huge national importance and involves billions of dollars. It’s vital that the broadband debate be based on facts.

“Yet we too easily accept outside assessments of our performance without asking whether those assessments are accurate.”

Evans said in the OECD’s much-vaunted ‘league table’ there are distinct clusters of countries whose adoption rates are so close to each other the gap between them is smaller than a margin of error of 5 percent.

"Yet without a rigorous discussion of possible errors both in population statistics and broadband subscriber data, readers of the OECD tables have no way to test the fairness of their country’s score,” said Evans.

The Market Clarity analysis also found that although the OECD sets 256 Kbps as its minimum benchmark for inclusion as a broadband customer, this information is not collected by 14 out of 30 OECD nations.

“America and New Zealand certainly have cause to complain,” said Evans. “We can see no reason why eight million American broadband subscribers recorded by the FCC and published in a downloadable spreadsheet appear to have been overlooked in the OECD’s table. Likewise, 65,000 broadband customer connections in New Zealand’s seem to be missing from the OECD’s calculations.”