The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development addresses issues arising from the “digital economy”, the developing global information infrastructure and the evolution towards a global information society.
They say broadband has increased during 2005 from 136 million in June 2005 to 158 million by December 2005. Broadband penetration growth in the OECD held steady at 15% in the second half of the year reaching 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in December.
Main highlights from the second half of 2005 are:
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In December 2005, four countries (Iceland, Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with more than 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
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Iceland now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 26.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
- Korea’s broadband market is advancing to the next stage of development where existing subscribers switch platforms for increased bandwidth. In Korea, fibre-based broadband connections grew 52.4% during 2005. This switchover effect is evident by the net loss of DSL (-3.3%) and cable (-1.7%) subscribers during the year.
- The strongest per-capita subscriber growth came from Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia. Each country added more than 6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during 2005.
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Japan leads the OECD in fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) with 4.6 million fibre subscribers at the end of 2005. Fibre subscribers alone in Japan outnumber total broadband subscribers in 21 of the 30 OECD countries.
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DSL is still the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Cable subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States.
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The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 49 million. US broadband subscribers represent 31% of all broadband connections in the OECD. It's 12th ranked in percent of broadband subscribers.
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Canada leads the G7 group of industrialized countries in broadband penetration
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The breakdown of broadband technologies in December 2005 is as follows:
o DSL: 62%
o Cable modem: 31%
o Other technologies (e.g. satellite, fibre and fixed wireless) : 7%
Last updated on 11 April 2006