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Asia beats Europe in fixed and mobile broadband development index [New Vision (Uganda)](New Vision (Uganda) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Asian markets have overcome other countries across the world to reach the top of the Broadband Development Index from Ovum. The body looked into the take-up of high-speed fixed and mobile broadband services in 191 countries, with South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan reaching the top four spots in the organisation's study. Ovum believes the countries will keep hold of their positions in the study over the course of the next five years, but the US ranks only eighth and is expected to drop to 13th by 2019. However, it is believed European rankings will improve over the next five years due to spending on LTE and fixed-broadband networks, with Holland, Denmark and Sweden set to breach the top ten by 2019. It is believed that China and India will rise from 59th and 157th to 35th and 127th respectively. Germany and Spain are also set to move further up the list during the time period. However, the biggest drop will come from Qatar from fifth to 16th, with the country's migration to fast mobile broadband expected to be slow. The fast fixed-broadband score will, however, stop increasing after 2014 when penetration reaches 100 per cent. With more people now relying on mobile broadband to run their tablets and smartphones, it is increasingly important for businesses to be able to call on high-speed connections. Milena Cooper, senior financial analyst at Ovum, said: "Previous country-by-country comparisons of broadband connectivity have focussed on basic broadband connectivity and on fixed rather than mobile telecommunications. "We wanted to find a way to include both fixed and mobile broadband because in many emerging markets mobile is the de facto broadband technology." Ms Cooper explained that the countries scoring highly on fixed broadband are often successful with mobile broadband. She emphasised that South Korea and Singapore rank first and second respectively in fixed and mobile fast broadband across the forecast period. COPYRIGHT (c) 2014 NEWVISION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |