LONDON — South Korea is close to losing its long-held position as the world leader in broadband penetration, with Denmark and the Netherlands catching up fast in terms of number of broadband lines per 100 population.
Just released figures from Point Topic, which collates data for the DSL Forum, suggest South Korea showed negligible growth in 2005 but still has over 25 percent penetration of broadband. But Denmark and The Netherlands are only a fraction of a percent behind.
Hong Kong and Finland are also close, both having reached a 23 percent penetration level. The other countries making up the top-ten by population penetration in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to Point Topic, are Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Monaco and Norway.
The figures confirm that Europe is increasingly leading the roll-out of broadband around the world. The Middle East and Africa, together with Eastern Europe, are the fastest growing of the seven regions tracked, although their overall penetration levels are still low.
Western Europe has almost caught up with North America as the region with the highest penetration, but is still growing considerably faster – 47 percent in 2005 as against 27 percent.
Point Topic says in its latest update that unless broadband growth in Western Europe goes through a very sharp slowdown, it will soon be well ahead of North America in take-up.
