A new report from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says Canada is tops among the G7 when it comes to broadband or high-speed Internet connections.
Here’s some other data points the OECD published in a media advisory notice:
The number of broadband subscriptions throughout the OECD continued to increase during 2005 from 136 million in June 2005 to 158 million by December 2005. Broadband penetration growth in the OECD held steady at 15% in the second half of the year, reaching 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in December.
In December 2005, four countries (Iceland, Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with more than 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
Iceland now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 26.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
Korea’s broadband market is advancing to the next stage of development where existing subscribers switch platforms for increased bandwidth. In Korea, fibre-based broadband connections grew 52.4% during 2005. This switchover effect is evident by the net loss of DSL (-3.3%) and cable (-1.7%) subscribers during the year.
The strongest per-capita subscriber growth came from Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia. Each country added more than 6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during 2005.
Japan leads the OECD in fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) with 4.6 million fibre subscribers at the end of 2005. Fibre subscribers alone in Japan outnumber total broadband subscribers in 21 of the 30 OECD countries.
DSL is still the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Cable subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States.
The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 49 million. US broadband subscribers represented 31% of all broadband connections in the OECD.
Canada leads the G7 group of industrialized countries in broadband penetration