How much bandwidth do rural broadband customers need? That is the $4.5B question. Geoff Burke, senior director of corporate marketing for Calix, explains how much bandwidth rural customers are using, based on recent data measurements (January through March 2012)  from end-points distributed throughout rural America.

Burke explains that one difference between this report and their previous broadband report is that this time they measured the downstream and upstream speeds. He points out that 71% of the measured customers are not meeting the FCC’s minimum definition of broadband.  He cites a number of factors for why this may be the case, including loop lengths, mid-mile constraints and service packages. He indicates that they have received inquiries from various Public Utility Commissions about the report.

Like the previous report, the Calix data indicates the idea of bandwidth supply creating its own demand. That is, people with fiber connections use 2.3 times as much bandwidth as those with copper. This is down a bit from the earlier report of 3x usage for FTTH, but is still significant. Further, as summarized by Burke and laid out in the report, rural areas are as reliant on the Internet as those in urban areas and use the same applications, albeit at different rates depending upon geography.

For instance, the West and Southeast, generate a higher proportion of traffic from business services, which include telecommuting. Nationwide, business services,  account for 7% of downstream and a whopping 40% of upstream traffic.

Burke points out that future reports will dive deeper into the home network, thanks to Calix’s new software capabilities that have just been announced. So, in addition to the 180 applications they monitor, they will also be able to identify devices and usage within the home. Additionally, the number of endpoints (>100k) and service providers (>50) are increasing with every quarter, improving the sample size, giving policy makers and marketeers the scoop on rural broadband.