Broadband services have become faster and cheaper, especially in countries where there are a large number of cable and DSL providers, according to a new study by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which focused on broadband deployment, tracks usage, deployment, and pricing trends over the past couple of years.

DSL prices fell on average by 19% from September 2005 to October 2006, while comparable speeds jumped by 29%. Cable broadband also got cheaper, dropping 16% in price while getting 27% faster.

The OECD ranked countries both on affordability of broadband packages and price per megabit. Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland are at the cheap end of the spectrum when it comes to the range of prices.

The cost per month of broadband service in the US ranged from $15.93 at the low end to $191.20 at the opposite extreme. Swedish broadband ranged from $10.79 to $46.74, Denmark from $11.11 to $105.10, and Switzerland's from $12.53 to $55.65.

While in the US, $15.93 is likely to offer customers a 768Kbps/128Kbps DSL connection, the $19.87 per month minimum in Japan will result in much faster service.






As one might expect, given their high speeds and low broadband costs, Japan and Korea were at the top of the list. Japanese broadband is as cheap as $0.22/Mbps, while Korea is $0.42/Mbps. Sweden performed very well in the cost per megabit category too, with prices as low as $0.35/Mbps.

The countries with the lowest cost per megabit per second are generally characterized by two things: a significant optical fibre infrastructure and a substantial level of competition. In Japan and Korea, for instance, fibre is widespread, resulting in the fastest residential broadband speeds available anywhere.

In Europe, the regulatory environment allows consumers in many countries to choose from any number of DSL and cable providers. Both Japan and South Korea, offer some of the fastest broadband at 100Mbps, or move into Verizon's FiOS coverage area in the US, Verizon's fiber offering is the third-fastest residential service in the world.






Cable providers in six countries now offer speeds of greater than 20Mbps, with another 17 countries offering cable internet speeds of 10Mbps or faster. Optical fibre is becoming more popular worldwide, says the OECD, and not just due to a desire to offer faster speeds. The big driving force is bandwidth to offer triple-play( Internet, TV, telephone), and broadband providers around the world want enough bandwidth to be able to offer HDTV services.

The study points out that while many of the fast networks under study use ADSL2+ for last-mile connectivity, it is not enough to support multiple HDTV streams. As a result, fibre-to-the-home deployment is becoming increasingly popular worldwide.

Story filed 22.07.07