If you can look beyond the currently popular view of US lagging in a broadband penetration, things in 2005 have started to change quite radically in the US. According to The Computer Industry Almanac, there will be 215 million broadband subscribers in the world by end of 2005, and 46.9 million will be from the US. That gives US 21.6% of the total market, ahead of China which will end the year with 35.9 million (16.5%) and Japan’s 12.2% market share (26.4 million connections.) If you include narrowband (aka dial-up), US will have nearly 198 million Internet users by year-end 2005 and worldwide Internet users are projected to top one billion in 2005.
Recent reports indicate that at the end of 3Q 2005, there were about 40.2 million broadband subscribers in the US. Which means a whopping 6.7 million will join the broadband party in the 4Q 2005 – that three times the usual, which makes me suspect the prediction, if not the general trend. So back to the popular broadband penetration – US is ranked dead last in the top 15 countries by penetration, while South Korea is still number one. The big issue is the lack of real broadband speeds in US. We are getting our rear-ends spanked by other countries when it comes to total bandwidth being pumped into homes. More Broadband Data @ Broadband Wiki. (Hat Tip, Priceless Gary Price!)
Om…interesting, I never thought about it from the market share perspective.
Still, the U.S. needs to do better in its broadband penetration rate – for our own sake. My thoughts are that we need more competition to bring down what often are ridiculous monthly broadband rates, not affordable to those with tight budgets.
Do you think that BPL might one day spur the competition needed to bring down these costs?
What is meant by ‘broadband’ here?
I remember reading somewhere (I think this webside) that USA considers some speeds as broadband that are considered narrowband in other countries.