Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Worldwide broadband penetration shows Netherlands romping ahead in Europe

The far east still heads the league table of most broadband connected countries with South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan all in the top 6. The far east will overtake North America and Europe in the next few years for 'connected households', reports eMarketer.

Intriguingly Canada and four European countries help to beat the US into only 11th place.

eMarketer report says broadbend penetration rates worldwide put South Korea and Hong Kong top, China and Poland bottom

Taking just Europe out of the figures, the Netherlands leads the way with Germany and Poland bringing up the rear:

1. Netherlands
2. Belgium
3. Denmark
4. Switzerland
5. Sweden
6. France
7. Spain
8. Finland
9. UK
10. Portugal
11. Norway
12. Austria
13. Italy
14. Germany
15. Poland

The Netherlands is the biggest jumper, says eMarketer, having moved ahead of Denmark and Belgium which beat it in 2004.

As with many statistics, the figures mask some local factors - such as the availability of ISDN which still sees significant levels of usage in countries such as Germany.

China will soon rank as the most broadbanded connected country in the world by number, even though the percentage penetration puts it still right at the bottom of the table.



The Global Broadband Market