Fixed broadband: how bad is SA?
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently published their latest broadband statistics, revealing that across the member countries there is an average of 25.1 fixed broadband connections per 100 inhabitants.
The Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark are the fixed line broadband leaders with penetration rates of 38.5%, 38.3% and 37.7% respectively.
According to the report, the share of DSL and cable subscription in the OECD remains stable (58.8% and 29.5%).
Fibre-to-the-home subscriptions continued to grow and now represent 13% of broadband subscription (3,5% growth in six months).
In South Africa, Telkom’s ADSL service is the only consumer fixed line broadband service.
Telkom recently revealed that they had 795,419 ADSL subscribers at the end of September 2011, translating into a penetration rate of 1.6%.
The table below shows how South Africa compares with OECD countries when it comes to fixed broadband connections.
| Fixed broadband subscriber numbers | ||||||
| Country | DSL | Cable | Fibre/LAN | Other | Total | Total subscriptions |
| Netherlands | 21.2 | 16.0 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 38.5 | 6 392 000 |
| Switzerland | 27.2 | 10.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 38.3 | 2 983 281 |
| Denmark | 21.9 | 10.1 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 37.7 | 2 090 825 |
| Korea | 5.3 | 10.4 | 20.4 | 0.0 | 36.0 | 17 604 503 |
| Norway | 18.7 | 10.3 | 5.7 | 0.1 | 34.9 | 1 703 817 |
| France | 31.6 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 33.8 | 21 895 000 |
| Iceland | 29.3 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 33.6 | 106 896 |
| United Kingdom | 25.5 | 6.6 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 32.6 | 20 274 861 |
| Germany | 28.5 | 3.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 32.6 | 26 615 000 |
| Sweden | 16.5 | 6.3 | 9.0 | 0.1 | 31.9 | 2 995 000 |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| United States | 10.2 | 15.0 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 27.3 | 84 672 000 |
| Japan | 6.0 | 4.5 | 16.4 | 0.0 | 27.0 | 34 360 672 |
| New Zealand | 24.4 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 26.0 | 1 138 830 |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Australia | 19.9 | 3.9 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 24.0 | 5 405 000 |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Chile | 5.7 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11.0 | 1 883 956 |
| Mexico | 8.7 | 2.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 10.9 | 11 753 458 |
| Turkey | 9.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 10.0 | 7 315 418 |
| OECD | 14.3 | 7.4 | 3.3 | 0.2 | 25.1 | 309 429 354 |
| South Africa | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 795 419 |
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