July 5, 2006 London -- South Korea has lost its long-held position as the country with the highest broadband penetration, overtaken by the Netherlands, Denmark, and Iceland, reveals new research from Point Topic.
South Korean broadband lines increased by just over 3% from the first quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006. In the same timeframe, broadband lines grew 27% in the U.S., 45.5% in China, and a whopping 328% in India.
However, the number of FTTx lines in Korea grew by 18% in the first quarter of this year. Much of that growth is likely fiber-to-the-curb or -node (FTTC/N) segments where a LAN takes over for the last few meters and distributes the bandwidth to houses and apartments, report Point Topic analysts.
Fiber all the way to the family would deliver 1 Gbit/sec of data, enough to hold more than 8,000 simultaneous phone conversations; to listen to 3,500 CD-quality music tracks at the same time; to download the entire Encyclopedia Britannica (2005 digital edition) is just over 30 seconds; and to watch 200 DVD-quality or 66 HDTV channels, note analysts.
While this is currently on the excessive side even for a family of four where all members have their own media stations, that much bandwidth may be required in the longer term, particularly if the family wants to use some of the bandwidth-hungry applications on the horizon-eg., immersive virtual reality, telepresence, etc.
Japan, another broadband early adopter, also believes that fast won't be fast enough for long. Point Topic estimates Japan is closing in on 5.4 million FTTx lines, growing about 90% in the 12 months ending in the first quarter of 2006, compared with 20% growth in overall broadband subscribers.
Finally, there is China, where increasing population concentration in the cities and on-going infrastructure installation are creating perfect conditions for FTTx growth, say analysts. Although only showing around 2.6 million net adds in the year ending in the first quarter of 2006--a mere 33% increase--Point Topic sees mounting evidence that "the need for speed will mean more fiber in more places in 2006."