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Telecom Lead Team: India does not feature in top 35 broadband
markets based on speed of connectivity. While
almost all fixed-broadband connections in the Republic of Korea provide speeds
equal to, or above 10 Mb, broadband users in Ghana, Mongolia, Oman and
Venezuela are limited to broadband speeds below 2 Mb.
(Please see the chart of top 35 broadband markets based on broadband
speed)
An Internet connection with a speed of 256 kb limits the types of
applications and services that Internet users can enjoy. Service providers for
data-intensive services, such as video-on-demand, recommend a minimum speed of
2 Mb, according to an ITU report.
A recent ITU report said advertised and real speeds can differ
substantially. In some countries, regulatory authorities monitor the speed and
quality of broadband services and oblige operators to provide accurate
quality-of-service information to end users.
Europe leads in broadband connectivity, with fixed- and
mobile-broadband penetration reaching 26 percent and 54 percent, respectively.
ITU observed that a number of developing countries have been able
to leverage mobile-broadband technologies to overcome infrastructure barriers
and provide high-speed Internet services to previously unconnected areas.
In Africa, mobile-broadband penetration has reached 4 percent,
compared with less than 1 percent for fixed-broadband penetration.
The world’s top broadband economies are from Europe and Asia and
the Pacific. In the Republic of Korea mobile-broadband penetration exceeds 90 percent.
Mobile-broadband subscriptions have grown 45 percent annually over
the last four years and today there are twice as many mobile-broadband as fixed
broadband subscriptions.
