It has been cable operators, not incumbent telecommunications companies, that have driven the growth of broadband internet access, according to a new report on global broadband developments.
The study was carried out by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in order to review the broadband policy experiences of selected countries from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The report shows that in terms of the number of broadband subscribers per 100 people, the UK is the least developed of the countries, whilst Korea and Canada lead the way.
By the end of 2002, there were 55 million broadband subscribers in all OECD countries. Within this, the US comprised the lion’s share, with 19.8 million, or 36% of the total, despite accounting for just 25% of the OECD population.
The FCC’s report notes that broadband access has developed slowly in the UK, despite the fact that cable operators and telecommunications carriers have had the longest experience with infrastructure competition of any OECD country. Cable operators focused more on offering telephony and digital television than cable modem services.
BT was even more tardy. Whilst cable operators NTL and Telewest began offering cable modem services in 1999 and 2000 respectively, BT did not introduce a DSL service until May 2001. As a result, the UK was among the last of the major developed countries to have DSL.
This pattern is typical of the overall trend in broadband development, where incumbent telecommunications companies like BT have lagged considerably behind cable operators in rolling out services.
This is true in markets such as Korea, Canada and Belgium, where cable networks are extensive and cable companies are historically separate from telecommunications companies. It is also the case in Japan, where only one-third of households are passed by cable and in Sweden, where only 40% of cable subscribers do not belong to the incumbent telco-owned cable operation.
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