The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which does not include countries such as China and Russia etc., has published its latest semi-global broadband statistics to the end of December 2008. Happily the UK managed to retain its position as the 5th largest broadband market in the OECD with 17,275,660 broadband subscribers.


The overall number of broadband subscriptions in the OECD grew by 13% during 2008. DSL (ADSL etc.) remains the most popular broadband technology with a 60% market share, followed by cable modems on 28%, fibre optic (FTTH etc.) on 10% and other technologies (wireless etc.) holding the remaining 2%. Fibre subscriptions have grown by +1% since June 2008 and remain the dominant connection technology in Korea (43%) and Japan (48%).

Interestingly Japan is also home to the 3rd cheapest average monthly broadband subscription price of $30.46 (£19.44), which is practically neck and neck with the UK, Greece and Finland. The lowest average price for DSL service was also found in Japan (£16.60), while the lowest cable price can be located in France (£14).


The average price for 1Mbps of broadband capacity in the OECD is £7.66. Meanwhile both DSL and cable subscription prices have fallen by an average of 14% and 15%, respectively, per year since 2005. Interestingly, where specific usage restrictions are applied, the average data transfer allowance is 27GB (GigaBytes’).

In terms of speed, just 12 counties offered broadband of over 50Mbps, while up to 20Mbps services were available in almost all OECD countries bar two. The average advertised broadband speed is 9.6Mbps for DSL, 14.9Mbps for cable and 65.3Mbps for fibre optic.