14 DAY TRIAL // A new study by analyst firm Strategy Analytics ranks the US in the 20th place when it comes to Internet broadband adoption. South Korea leads the pack with a 95 percent rate, compared to the US' 60 percent. Asian countries have some of the higher scores, with 5 countries out of the leading 10 being from that region.
“Broadband rankings are often the subject of great debate and hand-wringing,” noted David Mercer, principal analyst and vice-president at Strategy Analytics, explaining the company's methodology. “Though our rankings may differ from those of other organizations, it is because we are looking at the appropriate metrics.”
The study boasts more accurate measurements as it looks at households with broadband Internet connections rather than per-capita broadband adoption. “In far too many cases, people are looking at the wrong things,” says analyst Ben Piper, director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service. “Residential broadband is overwhelmingly consumed on a household basis – not individually. Reporting broadband penetration on a per-capita basis misses the mark, and can provide grossly misleading results.”
With the top countries coming from the Asian-Pacific region the analyst firm forecasts even bigger numbers for the future, with broadband adoption rate growing by 15 percent in the next 4 years. South Korea enjoys a 95 percent broadband adoption rate thanks in part to its mostly urban population but also to government efforts.
In second came the small country of Singapore, with 88 percent adoption. Two European countries also made it to the top 5, namely the Netherlands and Denmark, with 85 and 82 percent respectively. The US on the other hand only managed to get the 20th place from a total of 58 countries the study tracked, with only 60 percent of US households having a broadband Internet connection and future predictions show the country falling to the 23rd place this year.