A new report on broadband access in California highlights some of the problems of broadband that are often glossed over in other reports.

The report is available in several files including maps and a spreadsheet here: The State of Connectivity: Building Innovation Through Broadband.

The report says that, while 96% of California residences "have access" to broadband of some kind, only half of Californians have access to broadband at speeds greater than 10 Mbps. And though access is available, barely more than half of Californians have adopted broadband at home. Further, "broadband infrastructure is deployed unevenly throughout the state, from state-of–the-art to nonexistent." And 1.4 million mostly rural Californians lack broadband access altogether.

Since by some measures, according to the report, "California remains a domestic leader in broadband adoption", this is not an inspiring situation.

I found the spreadsheet, "Appendix: Broadband Pricing Survey" particularly interesting. It compares more than 100 broadband services throughout the state and shows the price for download speed varies from $3.81 to $144, per megabyte.

Press coverage: California Broadband Task Force Releases Final Report, By Gina M. Scott, Government Technology, Jan 18, 2008.