17 July 2007
A look at broadband use around the world has found noticeable variations in speed and prices in some of even the most developed countries.
The study of 30 of the world's most developed countries by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found 60% of its member countries are now using broadband connections to access the internet.
What's more, it found that broadband prices for DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connections had fallen by 19%, while speed had increased by 29% to October 2006.
Japan is the country with the faster broadband connection at 100Mbps, ten times faster than the OECD average for the 30 countries.
It also wins in terms of price, with broadband per megabit per second at just 11p, comparing markedly to the figure for the UK of 1.81.
Indeed the report stated: "Broadband is very quickly becoming the basic medium for service delivery on both fixed and wireless networks."
Speaking to the BBC, JupiterResearch telecoms analyst Ian Fogg said: "In many of the OECD countries those people without broadband and making the transition are feeling their way and are very conscious of price. They haven't seen the need to go to broadband historically."
He also explained that the switch from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) using telephone lines to many using ADSL2+ (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines) has helped to promote the uptake of higher broadband speeds.
However he added that an ADSL2+ line works at 24Mbps, which is still slower than fibre optic network speeds.
Mr Fogg explained that uptake of ADSL2+ lines had been patchy and the UK had been slow to take the lead from across the channel in France where it has been used for the past few years.
"BT (in the UK) has been very slow to switch across. The only option for UK customers has been to get it from competitors, notably Be, which is owned by O2, and Sky," he added.
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