9 June 2005
More Europeans than Americans possessed a broadband Internet connection in the first quarter of 2005, according to a new survey.
A study conducted by Anglo-Dutch research group TelecomPaper found that the Asia Pacific region continues to be the world's biggest broadband market with 61 million subscribers and a 39 per cent share of the market.
However, the latest report places Europe in second place for the first three months of the year, with 47.95 million broadband subscribers, while America lags behind with 47.53 million. European broadband subscribers signed up at around twice the rate of Asia and America during the quarter.
Broadband leader South Korea had 23.92 broadband connections per 100 inhabitants during the first quarter of this year, giving well over 50 per cent of the population access to high-speed net access. Subscription rates in the country were just 1.45 percentage points up on the same period last year.
In the Netherlands and Denmark broadband penetration started to catch up with North Korea. Penetration rates rose to 21.1 per cent, up from 13.9 and 15.8 per cent respectively during the same three months last year, giving around half of the population broadband access.
TelecomPaper director Ed Achterberg predicted that European subscription rates could topple South Korea from the top spot within the next year, as consumers take advantage of growing competition in the telecoms market.© DeHavilland Information Services plc
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