One In Ten Global Internet Users Has Broadband, Says Study
The number of worldwide broadband subscribers increased by 72% to approximately 63 million in 2002. This is the main finding of a new survey from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“Broadband is arriving at a time when the revolutionary potential of the internet has still to be fully tapped,” said Dr Tim Kelly, Head of the Strategy and Policy Unit at ITU. “However, while broadband is accelerating the integration of the internet into our daily lives, it is not a major industry driver in the same way that mobile cellular and the internet were in the 1990s. ItÂ’s an incremental improvement, offering internet access that is faster, more convenient and cheaper than ever before.”
Demand for broadband is being driven by the desire to run applications which require high-speed connections to work efficiently (see Dial-Up Delays To Drive Broadband Adoption In H2). Broadband services provide internet connections which are at least five times faster than earlier dial-up technologies and allow users to play online games, download files and access information quickly and easily.
While it is more expensive than dial-up, broadband is becoming more affordable in countries where there is keen competition among providers. It is also helping to boost consumer spending, a point proved by the fact that Korea, where 94% of internet users utilize broadband, ranks only behind Switzerland in terms of telecommunications spending.
Opportunities for business Businesses have been quick to exploit the advantages of broadband, which can be more than a hundred times cheaper, per megabyte per second, than existing private network options.
“The dot.com boom was driven by the expectation that the internet would create a large market for electronic commerce, on-demand content, and online applications,” said Kelly. “Broadband brings this expectation one step closer to reality by offering faster speeds and a better platform for the development of content services. In other words, the reality is finally starting to catch up with the market hype.”
A truly global technology? In all, one in every ten internet subscribers worldwide, or just over 5% of the total installed base of fixed lines, has a dedicated broadband connection. By the end of the year, services were available in more than 80 out of 200 economies across the globe. DSL growth has been particularly significant in the Far East and Western Europe (see Research Shows Worldwide DSL Growth) and even in the US, broadband is expected to reach the 25% penetration mark more quickly than either PCs or mobile phones have previously.
At present, broadband is largely the preserve of developed countries but once prices fall, the technology could prove to be a godsend in the Third World. DSL offers an alternative to costly fixed line services and has the potential to give developing countries the opportunity to create their own integrated voice, data and video network.
“Around the world, access to knowledge and information is quickly becoming the major driver of growth and development,” said Kelly. “Broadband will help accelerate this process by enabling multiple applications across a single network, bringing down prices and radically changing the economics of access.”