The Lay of the Digital Land

According to a new OECD report, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development has just released its official broadband statistics for December 2008.

This data, accompanied by graphs and Excel files, can be found in full here.

Separately, as part of the OECD's ongoing response to the economic crisis, a new report has just been released that focuses the role of broadband investment in aiding economic recovery. This paper argues that policy makers need to evaluate the costs and benefits of any public investment in telecommunication infrastructure and select projects which can stimulate current demand but simultaneously expand the productive capacity of the economy in the longer term. All public investments in telecommunications should balance four key items - connectivity, competition, innovation/growth and social benefit.

Report Highlights

The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD reached 267 million in December 2008, or the equivalent of  22.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The number of broadband subscriptions grew 13% during 2008. The economic crisis has not significantly slowed broadband adoption. In fact, broadband growth during the last six months of the year was slightly stronger at 6.23% than in the first six months at 6.16%. 

The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in the Slovak Republic, Greece, New Zealand and Norway, Germany, France and the United States. Each country added more than 3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. On average, the OECD area increased 2.5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants over the year.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Korea and Finland maintain their lead the OECD with broadband penetration well above the OECD average, each surpassing the 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold. There was no change in rankings in the past 6 months among these leading countries.

The United States is the largest broadband market in the OECD with 80 million subscribers, representing 30% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

The upgrade to fiber-based broadband connections continues in the OECD. Fiber subscriptions now comprise 10% of all broadband connections in the OECD (up from 9% in June 2008). Fiber is the dominant connection technology in Korea and Japan and now accounts for 48% of all Japanese broadband subscriptions and 43% in Korea. Korea has the highest fiber penetration rate at 13.8 fiber subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 

Interesting Statistics

Speed

• Twelve countries offers connectivity of 50 Mbit/s or greater.
• Connections of 20 Mbit/s were available in all but two OECD countries in September 2008.
• The average advertised speed of fiber-based connections is 6 times greater than DSL and 4 times greater than cable.
• The average advertised speed for DSL is 9.6 Mbit/s,  for cable is 14.9 Mbit/s and for fiber is 65.3 Mbit/s.
• Japanese providers now offer cable broadband services at 160 megabits per second.

Prices

• As of September 2008, each of the thirty OECD countries had entry levels plans available for less than $34 US.
• DSL subscribers pay an average of $40 US per month for broadband service. The lowest average price for DSL service was in Japan at $26 US.
• Cable subscribers pay an average of $45 US per month for broadband service. France has the least-expensive average price at $22 US.
• The average price of one megabit per second of broadband capacity is $12 US.
• On average, subscribers in OECD countries pay 15 times more per advertised megabit of connectivity than Koreans.
• Even though speeds were increasing, DSL subscription prices fell an average of 14% and cable 15% per year since 2005.

More to follow.