OECD nations take to wireless access

The fast-growing popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs is driving growth in mobile broadband services. Wireless broadband subscriptions in OECD countries had exceeded half a billion by the end of 2010, an increase of more than 10 per cent on June 2010, according to new OECD statistics.

Fixed broadband subscriptions reached 300 million for the first time, but growth slowed to 6 per cent year-on-year, the lowest growth rate since the OECD started collecting broadband statistics just over a decade ago. This reflects higher broadband penetration and market saturation in some countries.

The Netherlands and Switzerland lead the table, with 38.1 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, followed by Denmark (37.7) and Norway (34.6). Fibre subscriptions continue to grow and account for 12.3 per cent of all fixed broadband connections. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is still the most widely used technology (57.6 per cent), followed by cable (29.4 per cent). Leading countries in fibre are Japan (58 per cent), Korea (55 per cent), Slovak Republic (29 per cent) and Sweden (26 per cent).

Korea is the leading country for wireless broadband subscriptions, with 89.8 per 100 inhabitants, followed by Finland (84.8), Sweden (82.9) and Norway (79.9). This compares to an OECD average of 41.6 and a total of just under 512 million. (India had around 12 million broadband subscriptions as on April 2011, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) figures.

Growth in mobile broadband is fuelled by inexpensive, flat-rate mobile data plans, according to the OECD Communications Outlook 2011. The communications sector, it notes, has emerged from the financial crisis with resilience and underlying strength.

Key factors in the sector’s continuing health include long contract durations of mobile operators, the growing popularity of bundled offers of television, mobile and fixed telephony, and the fact that communication services are increasingly perceived as non-discretionary spending items.

But, the OECD warns, the complexity of some bundled offers makes them increasingly hard to interpret for consumers trying to compare prices and make informed decisions.