There’s been so much broadband news lately, I’ve been trying to contain myself to Minnesota-only stories. But I couldn’t let the results of a recent OECD report going without mentioning them…

Specifically, the study asserts that:

• The average increase in household income for a broadband speed upgrade from 4 to 8 Mbps is $120 per month in OECD countries.
• BIC [Brazil, India and China] households benefit most by upgrading from 0.5 to 4 Mbps, when income could be expected to rise $46 per month.

“Results are in line with our previous study that quantified the impact of broadband speed increases on the gross domestic product of 33 countries, as well as a slew of other studies we reviewed,” says Sebastian Tolstoy, vice president, radio business development and strategy at Ericsson. “All indicate that broadband access has a positive effect on the economy. We know that speed matters and that upgrading broadband speed has a positive impact. Now we have shown this quantitatively using large data samples in both OECD and BIC economies, even at the household level.”