Today, the Phoenix Center released the Broadband Adoption Index (BAI) that, according to a release from the group, can help establish targets and compare the effectiveness of broadband policy between societies, rather than just ranking areas in terms of numbers of connections.

"Broadband access is important to society because it is believed to spur economic growth and development," said Phoenix Center President and co-author Lawrence J. Spiwak in a statement. "But different methods of access provide different impacts to economic and social activity. The approach we outline today is the first attempt to analyze the full social value of different methods of broadband access and place them into one index."

For example, said co-author George S. Ford, "A relatively low-speed mobile connection may have tremendous value to a low-income consumer that does not own a computer -- and the value to society of connecting that person may be far greater than boosting download speeds from 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps in a rich suburban area."

The 61-page report was supported by ANACOM and ANATEL, the regulatory authorities of Portugal and Brazil, respectively.