New OECD Numbers: Broadband Around the World

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday released its latest data on broadband access. For broadband penetration, the United States is in the middle of the pack, slightly above average for OECD member countries. As for affordability, the United States has monthly broadband subscription fees that are slightly more expensive than the average for the OECD. The US is the most wired country in the world, according to a new study of industrialized counties that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. With 80,071,074 people connected to DSL, cable, or fiber (as of December 2008), America has nearly as many high-speed surfers as the next four countries combined (Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France). But tech patriotism may fade a bit when you consider the plight of average Americans. On a per-capita basis, the US ranks a dismal 15th -- behind Canada and most of northern Europe -- with just 27-percent of its population hooked up to fast pipes. Surprisingly, that still puts the US ahead of Japan, which has a 24-percent connection rate, as well as other wealthy counties, including Australia, Austria, Spain and Italy. The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD reached 267 million in December 2008, or the equivalent of 22.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The number of broadband subscriptions grew 13% during 2008. The economic crisis has not significantly slowed broadband adoption. In fact, broadband growth during the last six months of the year was slightly stronger at 6.23% than in the first six months at 6.16%. The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in the Slovak Republic, Greece, New Zealand and Norway, Germany, France and the United States. Each country added more than 3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year. On average, the OECD area increased 2.5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants over the year. Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Korea and Finland maintain their lead the OECD with broadband penetration well above the OECD average, each surpassing the 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold. There was no change in rankings in the past 6 months among these leading countries.