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A first national study of broadband service providers' market share 'The State of Broadband Competition in America ' 2010,' has been conducted by ID Insights, a data and analytics firm. According to the study and industry analyst Craig Settles, Arkansas has been found to have the most competitive environment nationwide. The study has based its rankings on market-share distribution analysis of states' top-10 broadband providers.

ID Insight's BroadBand Scout' database has used over two million data points nationwide to determine market share within each state and the District of Columbia using a unique analytical survey process of accessing millions of records in ID Insight's proprietary databases. North Dakota and South Carolina were ranked second and third as the country's most competitive state with Arkansas at the top. The last two sates were Hawaii and Rhode Island respectively.

According to ID Insight president Adam Elliott, as competition continues to be a major point of contention within the broadband industry, the company wanted to generate an accurate and, above all, unbiased picture of the competitive landscape. The company was able to rank states by level of competitiveness with the help of the BroadBand Scout database which observes usage and carrier information across the country. The company was also able to see how factors such as population density, percentage of rural versus urban areas, and Internet usage and speeds consumed affect a state's ranking.

Settles added that the state of competition within the broadband industry continues to be a significant issue. It is absolutely critical to utilize objective data to shape the discussion as the nation moves forward. He added BroadBand Scout was the first resource to effectively deliver that data, and provides a valuable jumping-off point.

The conclusions reached from the research included that there is a strong correlation between income and home value and the level of competiveness in a state. The level of competition decreases as income and home values increase from state to state.

States with the least percentage of Internet users and the least available speed tend to be the most competitive, whereas the bulk of broadband stimulus funding did not go to states with the least competitive environments.