Data: OECD broadband stats
December 6, 2010
The OECD has released new statistics for broadband penetration in OECD countries as of June 2010. These include the number of broadband subscribers per country, broadband subscriptions by technology, the percentage of fibre connections in total broadband and, for the first time, a wireless broadband penetration indicator.
There were 295 million fixed broadband subscriptions in June 2010 in the OECD area. This was up from 283 million in December 2009. The average penetration rate has grown to 24.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants up from 23.3.
Fibre continues its growth relative to other fixed broadband technologies with fibre accounting for half of all broadband connections in Japan (55 per cent) and Korea (52 per cent). Other leading countries include the Slovak Republic (28 per cent), Sweden (24 per cent) and Denmark (12 per cent).
DSL is still the most widely used technology in the OECD, accounting for 58 per cent of all lines. Cable makes up 29 per cent and fibre based connections have grown to 11.5 per cent of all lines.
The OECD reports for the first time a wireless broadband penetration indicator, which accounts for satellite, terrestrial fixed wireless and mobile broadband subscriptions. The latter are also split into standard mobile broadband subscriptions (those included in a mobile voice plan), and dedicated mobile data subscriptions (which need an additional data plan).
Korea (95.0), Sweden (75.6), Japan (75.3) and Norway (72.8) have the highest wireless broadband penetration in terms of subscriber per 100 inhabitants. Among the countries which have been able to report complete data, standard mobile broadband subscriptions usually represent the majority of wireless broadband connections.
Satellite and terrestrial fixed wireless subscriptions represent a marginal share of wireless broadband subscriptions in most OECD countries, with penetration rates slightly higher only in the Czech Republic (6.5), the Slovak Republic (3.0) and Ireland (2.2).