Diminishing ISPs, ITU and OECD Ranking -- Could There Possibly be a Relationship.

I was recently looking at data over the course of a week from the US Census, the ITU, and the OECD, all looking at indicators of broadband services in the United States. What grabbed my attention was the remarkably close relationship between the diminishing number of Internet Service Providers and the global standing of the United States when it comes to broadband penetration rates. Clearly there's a relationship here, the question is, what's driving this mess? Here's the data in graphical format (sources are the US Census, ITU, and OECD):