Internet economy: wireless subscribers drive broadband growth, says OECD

Demand from new wireless broadband subscribers is driving growth in high-speed Internet in OECD countries but the latest data show a slowdown in fixed subscriptions in the first half of 2011.

New wireless broadband subscriptions maintained double digit growth, rising by 14% from the last half of 2010. Year-on-year, wireless subscriptions rose by 26%. Fixed wired broadband subscriptions increased by only 2.25% between December 2010 and June 2011 (5.83% year-on-year), down from 6% in the last half of 2010. Today, there are 309 million fixed subscribers in the OECD. Globally, Switzerland and the Netherlands top the fixed broadband ranking (with over 38 lines per 100 inhabitants). The OECD average is 25.1. Korea (99.3), Sweden (93.6), Japan (80.0) and Finland (79.1) are the leading countries in wireless broadband penetration, some of them nearly doubling the OECD average of 47.9. The share of DSL and cable subscription remains stable (58.8% and 29.5%). Fiber-to-the-home subscriptions continued to grow and now represent 13% of broadband subscription (3,5% growth in six months).