CLEC Technical

DSL Prime: DSL Subscriber Numbers

Depending on which numbers you use, the USA is either number 2—or doesn't rank—in the broadband nation rankings. Unfortunately, the latter metric is more important.

by Dave Burstein
of DSL Prime and Future of TV
[July 3, 2006]
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Q1 2006 150M
Point-Topic DSL Forum numbers

Total DSL subscribers, which put the larger countries on top

Rank
Nation
Subs
1 China 29,357,000
2 USA 22,224,006
3 Japan 14,571,000
4 Germany 11,100,000
5 France 10,214,000
6 UK 7,921,500
7 Italy 7,024,300
8 South Korea 6,422,406
9 Spain 4,294,800
10 Taiwan 3,762,000
11 Canada 3,479,265
12 Brazil 3,323,900
13 Netherlands 2,587,000
14 Australia 2,494,000
15 Turkey 1,843,852
16 Mexico 1,831,500
17 Poland 1,429,429
18 Sweden 1,382,500
19 Belgium 1,344,252
20 Switzerland 1,189,000
21 Finland 1,091,400
22 India 1,088,935

The welcome addition is India, finally getting on track. A year ago, Minister Maran called for two million connections by the end of last year. BSNL responded with a price of $9-12 dollars (low speeds, low cap), but they weren't able to service the customers in volume until early this year.

DSL as percent of phone lines, in countries with over 1 million DSL subscribers

 
Rank Nation Percent
Bband
1 Finland 38.3
2 France 30.0
3 Taiwan 28.7
4 South Korea 27.6
5 Belgium 26.2
6 Netherlands 25.9
7 Italy 25.6
8 Australia 23.6
9 Spain 23.0
10 UK 22.5
11 Switzerland 22.3
12 Sweden 21.0
13 Germany 20.7
14 Japan 20.5

Broadband countries by number of connections per 100 households

1 South Korea
2 Hong Kong
3 Iceland
4 Israel
5 Taiwan
6 Singapore
7 Netherlands
8 Canada
9 Switzerland
10 Denmark

#1 South Korea is over 80 per hundred homes, while #10 Denmark is close to 60 per hundred.

Canada's presence on this list is clear refutation of the claim that the poor performance of the U.S. is primarily a function of lower population density. Folks in D.C. serve their country better starting with the truth, not excuses. John Kneuer, Acting NTIA Administrator & Asst. U.S. Secy. of Commerce-Communications & Information has his head in the sand with a Pollyanna comment "The U.S. leads the world in the number of broadband lines in service and that service deployments are growing strongly." (TR) The U.S. has 2 to 5 times the population of any other rich country, so of course we have more total lines. The population size means the U.S. also has more automobiles, telephones, schizophrenic imbeciles, and foolish politicians.

 

 

Copyright 2006 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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2. DSL Prime: DSL Subscriber Numbers