In Gartner’s (News - Alert) recent study, “Dataquest Insight: Consumer Broadband, Global Penetration Rates and Growth Prospects”, it was revealed that worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow 54 percent from 323 million connections in 2007 to 499 million in 2012 – equaling one-quarter of all households in the world.

 

Five countries exceeded 60 percent broadband penetration into the home in 2007 and this is expected to grow to 17 countries by 2012. The five countries are: South Korea (93 percent), Hong Kong (76 percent), Netherlands (74 percent), Switzerland (69 percent) and Canada (65 percent). New comers in this list in 2012 are expected to include: United States, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Taiwan, France, Australia, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Belgium and New Zealand.

 

“Depending on the specific market conditions, availability of Internet-enabled devices and the continued impact of broadband on consumer lifestyles, we expect some markets will have a broadband ceiling at 80 percent penetration or greater,” said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.

 

The high penetration rates seen in countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong and the Netherlands demonstrate what is possible under the right conditions. The small, denser countries, or countries with government-backed spending for broadband infrastructure, have an advantage. As a result, by 2012, these countries will have maintained their lead in broadband penetration rates.

 

"Broadband penetration will increase, especially in the geographically larger markets, as current broadband providers continue to deploy their services, as newer technologies (wireless broadband, such as WiMAX (News - Alert)) attract subscribers, and as users experience firsthand how speed enhances their Internet sessions," said Sabia.

 

When looking at household penetration for emerging versus mature markets, the overall growth is skewed. Not only will the digital divide continue between the emerging and mature markets, it will widen by 13 percentage points.

 

The top three markets of South Korea, the Netherlands and Hong Kong are already heavily penetrated so the change in penetration rates is minimal compared with markets such as the United States, Japan, Czech Republic, New Zealand and Australia. These markets will exhibit a swelling of broadband penetration by more than 20 percentage points.

 

"Consumers in heavily penetrated markets are already addicted to broadband, thus the future in these markets is less concerned with increasing subscriber numbers, and more with addressing what new applications and/or content will be transmitted over this pipe," Sabia said. "Newer ventures in these markets are primarily entertainment (such as Internet video content and games), Internet Protocol television (IPTV (News - Alert)) and home networking, which will bring these devices and services into one integrated system within the home."