Worldwide State of Broadband - S Korea, Japan Lead

Geek of the Week writes "No surprise here, a report by the International Telecommunications Union shows the US lagging in broadband adoption. S Korea and Japan lead with between 60 and 70% of S Korean households wired for speed, with Japan catching up quickly. The U.S. ranks 11th. Story here and the full press release can be found on the ITU website. Having traveled through Asia for business I can't say I'm surprised, but it is disappointing that the availability and price are in such sorry states here in the U.S."

In Japan

[Dancin_Santa]

In Japan they pass out Broadband modems on the street for free.

And connections are 8-12Mbps at the low end.

When you read the article...

[Osrin]

Japan and Korea don't lead... Hong Kong (CHINA!) and Korea are up at the front.

Japan ranks 10th.

Re:When you read the article...

[shri]

Absolutely, here's what available in Hong Kong.

6mbps + a DVD quality decoder for cable tv on demand with a progressive scan DVD player from Now Broadband [nowbroadbandtv.com] for a total of US$35-38/month. The cable channels run for about US$5-10/month and you can turn them on / off interactively using your decoder box.

In terms of features and value add, Hong Kong beats Korea hands down. (Yes, I live in HK)

Re:Rural Area

[puppetman]

True, but the government recently ran all that fiber optic cable along the Canadian National Railway line (CNR), and now alot of small, interior communities have bandwidth that would make an urbanite jealous.

There has a been a huge push to get high-speed Internet to small, rural communites.

Here's a good link on various provincial initiatives to wire the boonies [aboriginalcanada.gc.ca]

Re:Population density??

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a helpful map [nasa.gov]

Note that the U.S. is about as densely populated as India or Western China, both of which have much higher broadband acceptance than the U.S.

Broadband in Japan

[Anonymous Coward]

Several reasons for Japan's fast broadband growth are as follows: As has been pointed out, broadband modems are being passed out on the street by yahoo bb, who's service is cheaper than the phone companies' service. They are doing this at a great loss to try to build volume. They also include VOIP functionality, with calls to the US being charged at 5 yen (about 4 cents) a minute. Unfortunately Yahoo's availability is limited outside major cities. I live in a suburb of a prefectural capital and cannot get service. Another reason BB rates are rising, is that is is the only way to get flat rate internet access, as even local calls are charged per minute. Yes, ~$20.00 flat rate isps exist, but when the phone bill jumps $40, it is no longer a good deal. Also, although the bandwidth seems high and the rates seem low, the study probably doesn't take into account the fact that you need to pay both the phone company and a seperate isp for most connections. That can easily push the cost up into the 40-60 dollar range, and outside the major areas (tokyo, kyoto, etc.) the bandwidth rates are much lower. My fastest transfer rate was on a RH iso, about 60k over my 12MB connection. The penetration rates and adverstised speeds only show a small part of the broadband picture in japan.

Re:In Japan

[gcaseye6677]

All I can say is, cancel SBC Yahoo while you still can. I'd be surprised if that shitty thing could work on any computer on the first try, after recently setting it up for my brother. You will have to set your machine up to use PPPoE. Instructions on how to do it without their CD can be found here [disk919.com]. Whatever you do, don't use the CD. It installs all kinds of crap, including a Fisher Price looking web browser, which sets itself as your default. Its full of spyware and other annoying software, not to mention the installer seems to fail on the first try (it uses Flash). I'd say don't get the service, but if you decide to anyway, use the method described in the link. From what I've heard there are frequent outages in most service areas and the customer service is about as horrible as you would imagine. Just wanted to get the word out to avoid this scam of a broadband service.

Depends on how you look at it.

[Dr. Bent]

The US still has more internet users [cia.gov] than any other country. By about 3 times, actually.

It's a big country, and it's hard to wire it all.

Re:Sweden

[eddy]

Raw data transcribed from the PDF. All errors are possibly mine. (**LIST AT END OF COMMENT DUE TO LAME FILTERS**)

This added because of lame lame filter, bla, bla, bla, bla. And so on. This is so lame I can't believe I have to do this.

As local and national governments prepare for the challenges of the information society, there is much interest in who is doing well, and who is doing poorly, in broadband Internet access. Broadband access is being touted as a way for governments to attract investment, ensure future economic prosperity and provide enhanced social welfare. But among developing countries, there is a fear that the huge investments necessary to establish wide-scale broadband access will open up a new digital divide.

This workshop examined the different strategies that have been followed by ITU Member States, at local and national levels, for promoting the deployment and use of broadband networks. The key research question was why some economies have been more successful than others and whether this success can be replicated.

The topic "promoting broadband" was selected on the basis of priorities expressed by ITU Member States and Sector Members. This and other topics in the New Initiatives series are chosen on the basis of a regular questionnaire sent to all ITU Member States and Sector Members.

Workshop objectives

In April 2003, the ITU Secretary-General convened a small group of policy-makers, broadband service providers, telecommunication regulators, academics, and various other experts, serving in an individual capacity, to discuss the best ways to promote broadband deployment and use around the world. Through these discussions, the workshop attempted to identify the characteristics of successful broadband deployment that can be used by other governments, especially in developing countries, in establishing their own broadband policies.

Trying to get this posted took longer than writing down the data itself. This is so idiotic it's amazing. Hey, I'm trying to post at Score: 2 here. I'd maybe understand if anons had it a little tougher...

Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 30.3). We'll then I guess I'll just keep on trying then. This _is_ going to be posted, one way or another. Where did I put my markov-generator, I need it.... Take some source code in the meanwhile " bool r = ( left_weight_table[b] + right_weight_table[b] > 4 ) && (left_weight_ table[b] != right_weight_table[b]);"

33.5 and still not allowed to post. I mean, this is just an amazingly stupid heuristic. Who the fuck wrote this crap? Please stand forward in the light and show yourself.

How about a little SCO quote then?

"We are informed that participants in the Linux industry have attempted to influence participants in the markets in which we sell our products to reduce or eliminate the amount of our products and services that they purchase. They have been somewhat successful in those efforts and will likely continue." -- Page 35

35.2 ... Oh, well. There goes my chance of making a meaningful contribution early in the thread. You know, that sort of thing that slashdot should encourage, not make impossible. How about some of my tech-docs then?

The size of this table is Ceiling(num_chars/2.0), which can be calculated as follows using integer math: There are (num_chars / 2) + (num_chars mod 2) where num_chars := last_char - first_char + 1 bytes in the wtable, where the width for the first character is in the high bits of the first byte of the wtable, the width for the second character are in its low bits, and so on.

Not a dent. This is very depressing. I've been at it for five minutes now. Man, oh man... where's the limit then? 60? How stupid can this thing get?

0.3 Argentina
0.6 Australia
6.6 Austria
0.2 Bahrain
8

Compared to other countries..

[njan]

..the US is a veritable broadband paradise. In the UK, the uptake is even worse than the US; whilst 80% of the country is wired for "broadband", the phone companies have no intention of wiring the remaining 20% - and the 80% broadband is DSL at phenomenally expensive prices; a 768k up/down line will set you back somewhere in the region of $80/month. I currently pay $35 a month for 2.5mbit either way on my cable connection; and the customer service in the UK is similarly dreadful.

Maybe the US should count its blessings. ;)

Quantity...but Quality?

[Etnie]

I'm in Seoul at the moment. I have cable broadband for 33,000won/month, about US$29, including the tv side. Most people do have cable or DSL here.

However, it sucks. Goes down often which is normal for some US providers too. But when it does work, it's got some fat bandwidth but it's VERY laggy making most online games unplayable. My friend has DSL and the situation isn't any better.

Maybe if they gave it away in the US for almost nothing also, it would be wider spread there. But I much prefer my broadband at my US apt to the broadband here! (Even though it costs more than double, worth every penny!)

-e.

Re:In Japan

[ctk76]

why is this post modded as funny? it's all true.

Think about it...

[dankdirk77]

Most everyone in South Korea and Japan are MUCH closer to there local telco or big city... they have their hicks in the sticks, but think of Tokyo; 1 in 6 Japanese people live there.

Now, point 2, this is a PERCENTAGE number, not actual subscribers. If I had a "country" with 10 people in it and 7 were on broadband, that would beat the U.S. in percentage. The U.S. is the 3rd largest (population) country in the world behind China and India, so it's no surprise that it will take longer to get that penetration rate. I'm sure we have at least as many raw people on DSL as either of the front runners....

RTFA

[Cantus]

South Korea and Hong Kong lead in broadband adoption, while Japan and South Korea lead in broadband speed.

Let me break it down for you:

Broadband adoption (per capita)
1. South Korea: 21.3% (60-70% of households)
2. Hong Kong: 14.9%
3. Canada: 11.2%
...
10. Japan: 7.1% (and moving up)
11. United States: 6.9%

Broadband adoption (number of users)
1. United States: 19.9 million
N/A. South Korea: over 10 million

Broadband speed
1. Japan: entire movie in 20 minutes (520x faster than dial-up modem)
2. South Korea: entire movie in 26 minutes

Worldwide broadband subscribers (start of 2003)
63 million (mainly DSL/Cable)

Monthly subscription prices
Worldwide: between $30-50
United States: $53
Finland: as high as $165.89

More mobile phone users (1.16 billion) than fixed-line phones (1.13 billion)

Re:Rural Area

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you for real? - Our government has lain the cable needed to allow for broadband in isolated areas that can recieve a high benefit by having the access.

Here in BC, the government has declared that all schools in the province will have broadband access so that students, and the less fortunate in the communities can better their lives instead of drinking/toking their lives away at the end of the road.

Compare that to every idiot and his brother laying fibre through the US based on scam stock promotions with no business models ... the US has FIVE TIMES more fibre bandwidth than is needed for the present data traffic yet most americans can't get access.

Now who's system is screwed?

Re:Population density??

[Hal The Computer]

Yes but Canada also has a border with the United States that is 8 893 km [cia.gov] long.

That means that the area within 100 miles of the border is

8,893 km = 5 526 miles (converting to evil imperialistic units)
5 526 miles x 100 miles = 552 600 square miles of area.


Lets see you wire broadband in all that ;-)

P.S. I live approx. 600 miles from the U.S. border. And i have broadband at 1.5Mbs for only 35$ Cdn (approx. 25$ U.S.) per month.

I live in Japan

[Anonymous Coward]

It can be damned annoying getting past the Yahoo BB vendors hawking their wares outside of all the metropolitan train stations. "BB syou!" ("Let's BB!") You need a phone line to get the service, and if you don't have one, a one time license for the line is about $700. (You can transfer licenses from other people and NTT has deals, for example if you purchase an ISDN line instead you'll get a reduced rate.)

Because of the mind-numbingly high price of regular phone lines, most young people use cell phones now. I myself held off because I hate them with a passion, but this year finally gave in and said goodbye to any land line.

I did buy a landline connection at that outrageous price 3 years ago. The serviceman came out to my brand new apartment (which I had noticed already had phone lines running to it) and used his cell phone to call the main office. One word and my phone was hooked up. The only thought going through my head was: I just paid $750 to have my name entered into a database.

I've heard nothing but bad things about Yahoo BB, similar to what someone else posted.

Japan is not that advanced when it comes to the internet or computers, contrary to popular world opinion. Discussing computers or electronics with anyone in a retail store would drive the average slashdotter crazy. The Japanese know about gadgets, not about components, architectures, connections.

I made my own videocamera by cutting up other components once. I had to do it that way. Even in the electronic district of Tokyo, Akihabera, I get blank looks when I ask for certain cables, components. After I finally get the person to understand what I want, the usual response is, "Do foreign countries have that???" "Yes," I'll reply. "It's the same piece as connected to that TV but I want to buy it separately." Them: "We have a TV." Me: smacks self in forehead repeatedly.

NTT is competing with Yahoo now, and since I have a laptop I took advantage of their cheaper DoCoMo mopera cards, so now my laptop is always connected to the internet, anywhere I go with cell phone access in Japan (i.e. 95% of the country). $25 for the card and about $35 per month flat rate "tsukaihodai" use as much as you want, at 64k. Not the fastest, but it's always connected. I figure as long as I don't keep the transmitter next to my balls (for extended periods) I'll be alright.

Re:In Japan

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for SBC. PPPoE is industry standard for DSL, what are you whining about? It works on Linux, Mac, Win, and probably any other decent platform you can throw at it (I assume there are working ppoe clients for the various BSD's).

If you call yourself a geek, you shouldn't be installing ANY software that an ISP gives you. You have to understand that an ISP, especially one as large as SBC, or more to the point, AOL, is catering to the AVERAGE HUMAN BEING. Not someone who actually KNOWS what a pppoe client is, and why they wouldn't want to run a "fischer price browser". Yeah, I think the browser is shitty too, but nobody bent your arm to install it. It will run with IE/ Netscape/ Mozilla/ Konqueror and your PPPoE client of choice.

If the flash installer is failing on your machine, guess what... INSTALL FLASH ON THE MACHINE. :)

Frequent service outages? No more than any other ISP, I'd suppose. Telephone lines are prone to breakage. I'd say I see the most amount of problems in the Ameritech region, specifically Chicago, but I mostly deal with ameritech calls, so I'm not a good guage (everything looks like a nail when you're a hammer). Telephone lines can freeze, get water-logged, DSLAMs break, redbacks go down. Shit happens. If you call in, it WILL get fixed. You wouldn't believe how many people call in to complain the service is out, and it turns out they installed an extra phone and didn't filter it (DSL service, from ANYWHERE, requires filters), or maybe they put a new woofer on top of the phone cable, and WHAM, there goes the signal.

I'll be nice though. Since I am posting AC on this one, if you do have a major problem and it isn't getting fixed, and you SINCERELY feel you are getting the run around, you can ask to speak to a manager. This is true for ALL customer service. If your service doesn't work and nothing is happening to fix it, then cancel it. Most of the time they will try to work with you to get the problem fixed rather than loose a customer. They don't call it the cancels department, they call is "SOS" for save our sales. They really do want to make the service work for you. Yeah, you may get a shitty tech, or something might get overlooked, but that is life in the tech world. I mean shit, you are getting FREE phone support, 24x7.

Re:In Japan

[stephens_domain]

Get a router that supports PPPoE (they are pretty cheap), configure the router. You don't have to do anything with the PC except plug in the ethernet cable.

I do have SBC Yahoo! service, and I have been very happy with it. I switched from the local cable mono (possible slogans: "Dialup speeds at 50x the price!" or "Who needs customer service when your a monopoly?") and would never go back. I work from home and use Vonage for phone service, so I notice when there are problems. I have had a few hours of downtime over the past year (not counting power outages), but I think that is acceptable for a residential connection.

Re:It's not entirely population density

[nebular]

The availability of broadband in so many areas in Canada has to do with a Federal government initiative to have broadband internet available to 90% of the population in something like ten years.

That combined with the pioneering of cable internet in Canada, along with deals universities made with telecoms requiring broadband availability in the municipalitiy they reside in has made the internet quite fast in most parts of the country

Re:In Japan

[Anonymous Coward]

If you call in, it WILL get fixed. You wouldn't believe how many people call in to complain the service is out, and it turns out they installed an extra phone and didn't filter it (DSL service, from ANYWHERE, requires filters), or maybe they put a new woofer on top of the phone cable, and WHAM, there goes the signal.

I have had DSL service at the same location with SBC (formerly Pac Bell) since 1999. When it works, it is great. When it goes down, the experience is horrible. You guys have been terrible at migrating my account as you jump around (Pac Bell becomes SBC which links up with produgy and now Yahoo) and change authentication schemes, account setups, etc. My (old Alcatel) modem is never in their computer, and for a long time my username, which is not an email addy, baffled them too, until recently it just stopped working and they created a new-style account for me.

Here are some of the lies your front line CS reps have told me:
-"We are having lots of PPPoE authentication errors *in your area* right now, so see if it goes away in a few hours, it should."
-"The password reset I just did didn't work? Still doesn't work after I put you on hold for a few minutes? Well, just give the password change more time to trickle out to your [PPPoE] server, sometimes it takes up to an hour. It sbould be fixed eventually." (this was a level2 tech)
-"Your authentication errors could be caused by the Blaster virus"

The last time I had an issue, I navigated the phone system to DSL, Win2000, connection or email or pass issue, connection issue, can't log in. I had to listen to a LENGTHY blaster/sobig virus lecture, and how I need to visit WindowsUpdate, and how it probably isn't SBC's fault I am getting very clear PPPoE auth erros (which it was). Then I hit a dead end. No way to get to service rep. Hitting zero doesn't work. Have to back up and pretend I have an email issue. SBC simply refuses to field calls about connection problems.

Also, I am not getting free phone support, I pay $35 a month with a yearlong contract, and if you people are thinking you are you doing us all a favor with the tech support that explains a lot.

I have never once had a DSL issue resolved in less than three calls to your CS, usually need single or double escalation. The level3 techs and the high level support staff who have their own mailboxes and call you back until the case is fixed are all good people, but for one reason or another the others do not get the job done and actively lie to get me off the phone. Just like most companies.

Of course, might have something to do with the widespread public news reports that your CEO doesn't even use email (his secretary handles it), but what do I know.