INSIGHTanalysis: UK Aims To Join The Broadband Elite
BT announced yesterday that four out of five homes in the UK can now get ADSL broadband internet services. However, new figures from Point Topic show that Britain still trails many countries in terms of DSL penetration.
Speaking at the World Broadband Forum in London yesterday, BT Wholesale chief executive Paul Reynolds said: “We have now brought broadband services to exchanges serving 80 per cent of UK homes… This month we’ll have as many people connected to exchanges offering broadband as can switch on their mains gas cooker to make the supper.”
Despite the advances of the past year, the UK is still outside the top twenty countries when it comes to the proportion of phone lines that have been converted to DSL. Global statistics reveal that DSL added a further 10.7 million subscribers in the first half of 2003, taking the total number to 46.7 million.
The leading country in terms of uptake is South Korea where almost 40% of lines are DSL enabled. Japan experienced the most significant growth in the first half of 2003, adding 2.6 million new subscribers, and other trendsetters include Taiwan and Hong Kong. Asia-Pacific and South and East Asia still account for almost half of the world’s digital subscriber lines (see Research Shows Worldwide DSL Growth).
However, other markets are picking up. The US added over a million new subscribers in the six months to June while Europe added 3.5 million.
| Top Twenty Countries: DSL Penetration Of Phone Lines | ||||
| Rank | Country | DSL Subscribers (000s) | Phone Lines (000s) | DSL/100 Phone Lines % |
| 1 | South Korea | 6,811 | 22,930 | 29.70 |
| 2 | Taiwan | 2,142 | 12,949 | 16.54 |
| 3 | Hong Kong | 629 | 3,912 | 16.08 |
| 4 | Japan | 8,257 | 53,142 | 15.54 |
| 5 | Belgium | 644 | 5,090 | 12.65 |
| 6 | Denmark | 378 | 3,287 | 11.50 |
| 7 | Iceland | 20 | 191 | 10.47 |
| 8 | Israel | 325 | 3,119 | 10.42 |
| 9 | Singapore | 192 | 1,951 | 9.84 |
| 10 | Germany | 3,865 | 40,669 | 9.50 |
| 11 | Finland | 259 | 2,791 | 9.29 |
| 12 | Canada | 1,868 | 20,427 | 9.14 |
| 13 | Sweden | 484 | 5,956 | 8.13 |
| 14 | Norway | 188 | 2,307 | 8.13 |
| 15 | Switzerland | 317 | 4,089 | 7.75 |
| 16 | Estonia | 38 | 504 | 7.54 |
| 17 | Spain | 1,302 | 17,772 | 7.32 |
| 18 | France | 2,039 | 34,027 | 5.99 |
| 19 | Italy | 1,435 | 24,486 | 5.86 |
| 20 | Netherlands | 543 | 9,995 | 5.43 |
| Source: Point Topic, September 2003 | ||||
UK drives European growth Michael Brusca, vice president of strategy for the DSL Forum, commented: “Western Europe is no longer playing catch up in the broadband race. More than half of the countries showing the greatest subscriber growth and half of the top 20 for DSL are in the region.”
While it does not appear in the above list, the UK, with 94.1% growth, was the second fastest growing DSL country in the first six months of 2003 (behind Israel). There are now more than 2 million broadband users across the country and at the current rate of growth, BT should be on target to achieve its own goal of 5 million DSL subscribers by 2006.
The next forward step is the extension of the ADSL service so that properties within 6km of line to the exchange can get high-speed internet services. BT said that this will take effect from September 24 and increase the proportion of people who can receive broadband in enabled areas from around 94% to 97%.