The United States has 54.6 million broadband households, while China has 46.6 million; the two countries comprise the largest broadband markets in the world.
On a global scale there were 250 broadband households at the end of 2006.
“Countries such as South Korea, Japan and, to a lesser extent, the United States are entering a new phase of broadband development,” says Ben Macklin, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Broadband Worldwide: 2005-2011 report. “The market is moving from the high-speed Internet to the very-high-speed Internet.”
In South Korea and Japan broadband users are switching from DSL to higher broadband technologies such as optical fiber.
Japan had a policy early in the decade to bring optical fiber to homes across the country.
In 2006 there were around 7.5 million fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers in Japan, making it the largest number of FTTH subscribers in the world.
“What does that mean?” asks Mr. Macklin. “It means that a typical Japanese home can access 50 mbps-100 mbps for the price of what most people pay for 1 mbps in other countries.”
South Korea is also in their next phase of broadband development. ADSL is becoming the next technology as South Koreans upgrade their connection to fiber LAN connections.
Broadband adoption in North America has been more widespread in Canada than in the U.S.
eMarketer projects that 50 percent of Canadian households had broadband at the end of 2005, compared to 38 percent of U.S. households.
There will be more than 100 million broadband household in North America by 2011.
“Greater bandwidth availability doesn’t merely represent technology and infrastructure opportunities – it is opening up a wide array of opportunities for online marketing and content distribution, too,” says Mr. Macklin. “As consumers get more, they will want more, and that will be will be one of the key drivers of global broadband expansion in the coming years.”
