# Broadband Infrastructure - Iceland Comes 1st



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Iceland comes first in broadband *
13 April 2006
BBC

Iceland is most web-savvy country, with a study showing it has the highest concentration of broadband users. 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that broadband was also widespread in South Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark. 

But the US still has the most broadband users, with more than 49 million. 

Overall broadband subscriptions in OECD countries jumped from 136 million to 158 million in the six months to December 2005. 

The OECD figures revealing Iceland topping the list of broadband users were a surprise as South Korea is regularly touted as being the most wired nation on Earth following government drives to get people using fast net connections. 

Fibre and cable 

According to the economic group, Iceland has 78,017 broadband subscribers and South Korea 12,190,711. 

The leading countries in broadband use per capita all had more than 25% of their net users subscribing to such a service. Iceland led the field on 26.7%. 

By comparison, the UK was ranked 12th with 15.9%, just behind the US with 16.8%. 

The study also found the rate of people taking up broadband remained at an average of 15%. 

Japan followed the US in the largest number of broadband users, with 22.5 million. It also leads in fibre-to-the-premises usage, with 4.6 million fibre subscribers by the end of 2005. 

The number of fibre subscribers in Japan now outnumbers the total of broadband users in 21 of the 30 OECD countries. 

In Korea, fibre-based broadband connections grew 52.4% during the second half of 2005. However, despite the growth in the number of users connecting via fibre, the statistics reveal that DSL remains the leading broadband technology in 28 OECD countries. 

In the US and Canada, cable subscribers outnumber those that use DSL.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*S. Korea, Japan have world's fastest Internet links: survey *
2 February 2010
Agence France Presse

East Asian countries led by South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan are the best wired in the world with the highest number of fast broadband connections to the Internet, a recent report has found.

South Korea boasts the world's highest average connection speed at 14.6 Megabytes per second (Mbps) and also has six of Asia's 10 cities with the fastest link-ups, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps.

Japan had the second highest average connection speed of 7.9 Mbps, followed by the Chinese territory of Hong Kong with 7.6 Mbps, said the report by US-based network provider Akamai Technologies.

The other countries in the top ten are Romania, followed by Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and the Czech Republic, with the United States at 18th place, with an average speed of 3.9 Mbps.

The survey classifies "broadband" connections as those of two Mbps or more, and "high broadband" as five Mbps or over, while link-ups at 20 Mbps and better were categorised as "extremely high speed connectivity."

In South Korea, 74 percent of connections were "high broadband," the world's top rate, while the figure was 60 percent in Japan, followed by Hong Kong with 46 percent, said the report.

The United States came 12th, with just 24 percent of its connections at five Mbps or more. Worldwide, the high broadband percentage was 19 percent.

Growing demand for online high-definition video content is driving demand for faster connections, said Akamai's 'State of the Internet' report for the third quarter of 2009.

"As the quantity of HD-quality media increases over time and the consumption of that media increases, end users are likely to require ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth," the report said.


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

Iceland is pretty good for this kind of stuff, I was there in the summer...


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

I have 20 mbps, which seems to becoming a standard for cable internet in the Netherlands. 

ADSL broadband is usually advertised as "up to 20 mbps", while you're usually only getting like 5 - 10 mpbs.


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## julesstoop (Sep 11, 2002)

After we get our billion back from Iceland, we'll have true 20 mbps as well


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## metro_minotaur (Feb 7, 2009)

Broadband Infrastructure - Australia comes last


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

metro_minotaur said:


> Broadband Infrastructure - Australia comes last


I heard from friends living there they cap broadband usage, or sell usage by blocks of bandwidth (never truly unlimited) ... so does that mean the undersea cables need some capacity improvements?


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## thicken (Jan 29, 2009)

wow, very interesting.

but we gotta accpet that this is not too hard for iceland. but it's good for their people.

B R A S I L
a spetacular idea

www.umintercionalista.blogspot.com


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

I think nothing could do more to empower citizens and increase quality of life than widespread broadband fiber access. It would easily kill TV oligopolies, easing the entry barriers on that market, and could revolutionize government-citizen relationship.


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## 2co2co (Apr 8, 2008)

250kbps,the common definition is not a broadband (for me).... must be 1Mbps+


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## Nexis (Aug 7, 2007)

I have 54Mbps , but most Hotels and on some Trains its not even 20mbps.....


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## tampasteve (Aug 8, 2007)

50Mbps down, 25Mbps up

Steve


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## Mekky II (Oct 29, 2003)

And it's france that got the lowest price ? 19,90 euros for 100 Mbit/s

And between july and septembre, operators will launch an universal service, 9,90 euros triple-play (tv-illimited phone-internet).


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## tampasteve (Aug 8, 2007)

Wow that is a deal. I pay $120 (about 88 Euros) for 50/25 internet, TV (about 300 TV channels and 100 music channels - no movie channels like HBO or Showtime though), and phone (Verizon Triple play).

Steve


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*INTERVIEW-ICANN urges Africa to break internet monopolies*

NAIROBI, March 9 (Reuters) - African governments should break internet monopolies to help lower the price of access, the body in charge of assigning online addresses said on Tuesday.

Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said while 15 percent of the world's population lives in Africa, Africans made up less than 7 percent of all Internet users.

"We really need the African leaders to shatter monopolies because it is a bitter irony that in Africa there are some of the poorest people in the world paying the some of the highest prices," said Beckstrom.

Many Africa countries score the lowest possible result in a technology ranking by the World Bank due to low incomes, weak regulation, limited competition and lack of private investment.

Beckstrom said the late arrival of key information technologies in Africa was likely to reduce the cost for many countries. "The most positive aspect of Africa putting its technology infrastructure later is that they will get the best technology at a much cheaper price."

Beckstrom, in Kenya to attend the 37th ICANN meeting, also said it was moving to help Africa countries which were more prone to cyber crimes.

"Their systems can be and are often get attacked and we are running a security program with 20 Africa countries to help them reduce cyber crimes," he said.

The World Bank says there are 10 undersea cables either under construction or in the planning stages in Africa, which could push down international bandwidth rates and increase the number of broadband users.

U.S.-based advisory firm AfricaNext Investment Research expects Africa's broadband market to grow to 12.7 million users in five years from 2.7 million in 2007.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Undersea cable set to boost West Africa broadband*

LAGOS, July 2 (Reuters) - An eagerly-awaited submarine cable linking West Africa to Europe has gone live, paving the way for cheaper and more reliable internet access in one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets, its operators said on Friday.

The 7,000 km (4,350 mile) fibre optic Main One Cable runs from Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana, and also branches out to Morocco, the Canary Islands, Senegal and Ivory Coast.

The Main One Cable Company says it delivers more than ten times the broadband capacity of the South Atlantic Terminal (SAT-3), Nigeria's sole existing undersea cable, and 20 times the entire satellite capacity of sub-Saharan Africa.

"The ramifications of Main One's cable will be felt in all sectors -- from education, to health, to entertainment, helping drive economic growth and creating job opportunities all over Africa," the company said in a statement.

An expanding network and falling prices are expected to fuel explosive growth in mobile broadband in Africa over the next few years, particularly Nigeria, which has overtaken South Africa to become the continent's largest mobile telecoms market.

Internet connectivity in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of 140 million people with 5 percent broadband penetration levels, is expensive and unreliable and many business are forced to rely on satellite communications.

Enhanced capacity will bring more competition among big operators such as South Africa's MTN and India's Bharti, which last month completed a $9 billion acquisition of the African operations of Kuwait's Zain.

CATCHING UP

Main One's cable will also put Nigeria at par with the rest of the world in terms of internet and broadband services. The cable, which has a capacity of 1.92 terabits, has a speed which can accommodate 1 million MP3 downloads and 100 million voice calls per second.

South Africa has 1.28 terabits.

"Given the increase in bandwidth and the falling cost of accessing that bandwidth, it is really going to move West Africa and Nigeria into the 21st century," said Andrew Alli, Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), which financed $37 million of the $240 million project.

"There now needs to be investment within Nigeria to take that capacity to the end-user."

There are around 10 undersea cables either under construction or in the planning stages around the whole of Africa. A second new fibre optic cable owned by Nigerian telecoms firm Globacom is also due to go live this year.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Mekky II said:


> And it's france that got the lowest price ? 19,90 euros for 100 Mbit/s
> 
> And between july and septembre, operators will launch an universal service, 9,90 euros triple-play (tv-illimited phone-internet).


In Lithuania unlimited 200Mb/s downlink (uplink should be somewhere between 50 and 100Mb/s) is under 30 Euros/month). Not bad.


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## ulfi86 (Jan 24, 2009)

I'm from Romania and I pay ~10 Euros for a 100Mbps fiber optic connection and a 7.2Mbps mobile internet connection. This offer is available in all the big cities in the country.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Wow. New Zealand is behind the times. Download speed is often not fast enough to stream YouTube at lowest quality and I'm lucky to get 60KB/s upload speed on my "unlimited maximum speed" broadband (with a 25GB per month data cap which costs $20 to pay for another 25GB if I go over my data cap).


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## Dr.Scope (Jul 5, 2010)

$50 for 15Mbps FIOS fiber optics. I could get 100Mbps but I don't download that much so it's a waste of my money...


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## atmada (Jan 9, 2008)

are they all offering unlimited data bandwidth?


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## eomer (Nov 15, 2003)

Mekky II said:


> And it's france that got the lowest price ? 19,90 euros for 100 Mbit/s
> 
> And between july and septembre, operators will launch an universal service, 9,90 euros triple-play (tv-illimited phone-internet).


France is the cheapest for Internet Broadband Access but the most expensive for mobile phone...Thanks god, Free.fr will lauch it's quadruple-familly-play in 2011.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*How Fast Is Your Broadband? FCC Bets You Don't Know*
How fast is your broadband speed? If you're like the majority of Americans, you probably have no idea. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now asking for volunteers to participate in a program that will provide a more in-depth analysis of their broadband speeds.
1 June 2010
PC Magazine

How fast is your broadband speed? If you're like the majority of Americans, you probably have no idea.

A Tuesday report from the Federal Communications Commission found that 80 percent of broadband users in the U.S. do not know the speed of their connection. The commission is now asking for volunteers to participate in a program that will provide a more in-depth analysis of their broadband speeds.

The report is part of the commission's broadband speed initiative, which is part of the FCC's national broadband plan. In March, the FCC launched a broadband testing tool on broadband.gov, which lets users test their connection quality or alert the FCC if they live somewhere without broadband access. With the information collected, the FCC plans to compare them to speeds advertised by broadband providers.

"Speed matters. The more broadband subscribers know about what speeds they need and what speeds they get, the more they can make the market work and push faster speeds over broadband networks," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

Of the 3,005 people surveyed by Abt/SRBI and Princeton Survey Research Associates, the FCC found that there is no particular demographic that has a good grasp on their broadband speed, though men – 71 percent of which did not know their speeds - were a bit more aware than women, who landed at 90 percent unaware.

Despite not knowing their broadband speeds, 91 percent of users said they were "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with their Internet speeds at home. About 71 percent said they were pleased with mobile broadband speeds, though the FCC noted that the mobile Web has not really caught up to home Internet service.

As a next step, the FCC wants 10,000 volunteers to participate in a scientific study that will measure home broadband speed in the U.S. The commission needs participants from every major ISP, and those who volunteer will be provided with hardware from SamKnows Limited, which conducted similar tests in the U.K.

You can volunteer for the program at testmyisp.com. The FCC will release its findings from this trial in a "State of Broadband" report later this year. Also Tuesday, the FCC asked for comment on a plan to measure mobile broadband speed. It "asks for input on the best ways to measure mobile broadband speeds, the ways that speed measurements can be used to help improve service, and the information consumers should have about the speed of mobile broadband coverage," the FCC said.

Comments can be filed on the FCC's Web site. "Better information can help all consumers choose the broadband services that best meet their needs," said Joel Gurin, chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the FCC. "Today, most people just know that their home broadband speed is supposed to be 'blazing fast.' They need more meaningful information to know exactly what speed they need for the applications they want to run, and what provider and plan is their best choice."

CTIA, which represents the wireless industry, suggested that the evolving nature of the business might make it difficult to get an accurate read on mobile broadband speeds.

"Since the wireless broadband environment is constantly changing, it is difficult, if not impossible, to provide a speed-certain for all consumers on a wireless network," CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent said in a statement. "Instead, wireless providers offer consumers a range of typical speeds that more accurately mirror the wireless broadband experience and they continue to aggressively invest to provide ever-faster speeds for their consumers."


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