Governments Spur Broadband in Asia-Pacific
New Frost & Sullivan analysis "Asia-Pacific Fixed Broadband Market" finds that the fixed broadband subscriber base in the region – covering 14 Asia-Pacific countries including Japan – is expected to grow 17.3 percent to reach 182 million users by the end of 2009.
Even as mobile broadband grows in tandem, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Adeel Najam expects fixed broadband uptake to continue. He attributes this to the various government initiatives in rolling-out their national broadband ambitions such as Malaysia’s high-speed broadband project, Australia’s national broadband network and Singapore’s iN2015 masterplan. He also expects telcos in developing markets to continue deploying basic xDSL (digital subscriber line) infrastructure.
By next year when most of the government-initiated projects are earmarked for full-scale roll-out, broadband users in Asia-Pacific are expected to pass the 200-million mark, reaching 212.6 million by the end of 2010.
"The bulk of bandwidth growth and network roll-outs in the next few years will be driven by fiber-to-the-node deployments aided mainly by government spending on national high-speed broadband projects," Najam says, adding that xDSL will however remain the dominant platform in developing markets.
In 2008, the top six Asia-Pacific countries with the highest household broadband penetration rates were South Korea at 92.8 percent, Hong Kong – 85 percent, Singapore – 78.5 percent, Taiwan – 66 percent, Australia – 63.7 percent, and Japan – 62.7 percent.
