Telecom Trends

The latest OECD broadband numbers [ Excel, 47 KB] show that Canada leads the world in cable broadband penetration, with 14.89 subscribers per 100 people, as of June 2008.

Will this statistic be reported anywhere else?

Canada has maintained its position in overall broadband penetration - at number 10. As I have written before, since Canadian household size is larger than the OECD average, there are problems with the OECD numbers, which show connections per 100 people, not connections per 100 households.

The OECD did produce a table of "Percentage of households with broadband access" [ Excel, 37.5 KB] , but the data is incomplete. Using 2005 numbers (the last complete year of statistics), Canada ranks 6th, behind Korea, Japan, Iceland, Netherlands and Denmark.

Although a report we have seen is saying that Canada's performance in broadband penetration doesn't compare well against Australia, we beg to differ. In 2005, Australia had only a quarter of its homes connected using broadband; Canada had more than half.

Canada has to work on improving broadband affordability for its under served population. But for today, let's celebrate being number 1.

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Update [October 28, 8:40 pm]
Peter Nowak's covers the story at CBC Online. One of the comments on his story doesn't understand the relevance of the leadership in cable penetration rates.

Wot? A high ratio of cable to DSL is considered meaningful? They're simply two ways to provide the same service.

Of course, my readers didn't comment about this point because you understand that strong cable internet is evidence of the level of competitiveness in the retail internet market.

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OECD, cable, broadband