The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released its report on broadband usage and penetration with some interesting findings and observations. Instead of bemoaning the problems of broadband here in the United States, how about some highlights from the 151-page report, which I hope to dig into later today:
- At the end of 2007, U.S. broadband companies had 69.9 million subscribers, making it the largest OECD country by total number of subscribers, and represented 30 percent of the total OECD subscriber base.
- The United States ranks 15th with a broadband density of 23.3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
- Denmark has the highest broadband density at 35.1 percent.
- Fiber-based broadband (FTTH/FTTB) is now 8 percent of the total OECD installed base, making it one of the fastest growing broadband technologies. Japan has 40 percent of its connections on fiber. Korea comes next with 34 percent.
- Luxembourg is the fastest growing OECD market by per capita subscriber growth, followed by Germany and Ireland. The three countries added 5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
- Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Korea and Sweden all have broadband densities of more than 30 percent.
- The average speed of advertised connections increased from 2 Mbit/s in 2004 to almost 9 Mbit/s in 2007 with prices coming down 16 percent for cable and 19 percent for DSL in that time frame.
Is there any information on Canada, and how it held up?
Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Korea and Sweden all have broadband densities of more than 30 percent.
Very impressive, the Nordic countries.
Canada, depending on how you want to look at it, is either leading a group of big economy and English-speaking countries, just over 25% and in a pack with the UK, France, Germany, USA, Australia, and Japan, or significantly behind a group of countries with at similar latitudes. :)
Population density, shown on one of the graphs, is sometimes misleading, because some countries have a low population density but still most people live in areas with high population density. E.g., Norway’s overall population density is very low, a mere 12/km^2, but about 11.4% live in Oslo proper, with a population density of 1,299/km^2, and another large amount live in the surrounding area. <A HREF=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo”According to Wikipedia, “About 50% of the population of Norway lives within a radius of 120 kilometres of downtown Oslo.”
Interesting that with all the fiber (and supposedly so cheap), Japan still has a lower percentage of the overall population with broadband than the USA.
The number of broadband connections per 100 inhabitants is meaningless. My house has four inhabitants and one broadband connection. As a result, my house will always be 25% penetrated (until I can convince my kids to move out). It is broadband connections per 100 households that is relevant.
About a year ago the US passed the point where 50% of households were broadband connected and is expected to finish this year above 60%. So let’s stop with the self-flagellation and the adoration of small countries with state-owned PTTs.