Posted: 24th Jul, 2008 By: MarkJ
The latest research from
Gartner predicts continued growth of worldwide consumer broadband connections, which will rise from 323m connections in 2007 to 499m in 2012. Likewise, the global penetration rate of such connections will also rise from 18% to 25% over the same period:
Depending on the specific market conditions, availability of Internet-enabled devices and the continued impact of broadband on consumer lifestyles, we expect some markets will have a broadband ceiling at 80% penetration or greater, said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.
Five countries exceeded 60% broadband penetration into the home in 2007; and, this is expected to grow to 17 countries by 2012. The five countries are Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea and Hong Kong; sadly the UK came somewhat further down the list with 58%:
Country Broadband Penetration - (2007) - (2012)
South Korea - (93.0%) - (97.0%)
Netherlands - (74.0%) - (82.0%)
Hong Kong - (76.0%) - (81.0%)
Canada - (65.0%) - (79.0%)
United States - (54.0%) - (77.0%)
Japan - (54.0%) - (77.0%)
Switzerland - (69.0%) - (76.0%)
Singapore - (57.0%) - (75.0%)
United Kingdom - (58.0%) - (74.0%)
Taiwan (59.0%) - (74.0%)
France - (58.0%) - (73.0%)
Australia - (52.0%) - (72.0%)
Sweden - (58.0%) - (69.0%)
Spain - (54.0%) - (68.0%)
Germany - (49.0%) - (68.0%)
Belgium - (55.0%) - (66.0%)
New Zealand - (43.0%) - (64.0%)