Broadband Portal - Press Release

OECD broadband statistics (June 2011)

Wireless users drive further broadband growth, says OECD

Demand from new wireless broadband subscribers is driving growth in high-speed Internet access in OECD countries 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 broadband subscriptions rose by 26%.

Fixed wired broadband subscriptions increased by 2.25% between December 2010 and June 2011 (5.83% year-on-year), down from 3.5% in the last half of 2010. Today, there are 309 million fixed subscribers in the OECD.

Globally, the Netherlands and Switzerland top the fixed broadband ranking (with over 38 broadband subscribers 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%). Fibre-to-the-home subscriptions continued to grow and now represent 13% of broadband subscriptions (6% growth in six months). 

Nordic countries, with among the highest fixed broadband penetration, demonstrate very low growth in this segment and even slight falls in Denmark and Iceland. They also have very high wireless broadband penetration rates, which indicates the overall complementary nature of these networks for broadband services. 

New Zealand saw a rapid rise in both fixed and wireless broadband, moving to 12th from 16th in the wireless broadband ranking, boosted by the entry of a third mobile network operator, 2Degrees, in 2010. Demand is also likely to grow in France in 2012 with the entry of a new wireless operator, Iliad, bringing increasing competition in prices and services to the wireless broadband market.

OECD countries are reporting wireless broadband data in an increasingly harmonized manner  with the OECD wireless broadband methodology, as rankings are more stable than when these were first reported in 2010.

For comment or further information, journalists should contact Agustin Diaz-Pines (agustin.diaz-pines<a>oecd.org or tel. + 33 1 45 24 19 62) or Frédéric Bourassa (frederic.bourassa<a>oecd.org or tel. + 33 1 45 24 81 42) of the OECD’s Information, Communications and Consumer Policy division.

Data and charts for the June 2011 broadband statistics are available at: http://www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband

The OECD Communications Outlook 2011 is available at www.oecd.org/sti/telecom/outlook