2009 Asian - Broadband Market

Report Cover Image

Last updated: 21 Dec 2009 Update History

Report Status: Archived

Report Pages: 195

Analyst: Paul Budde

Publication Overview

 

This market report provides a comprehensive overview of the broadband Internet segment of the telecom market across the various economies of Asia.

 

Researchers:- Lisa Hulme-Jones & Peter Evans

Current publication date:- December 2009 (6th Edition)

Next publication date:- December 2010

Executive Summary

Asia makes a strong claim to be leading the world when it comes to the development of broadband Internet. In fact, after the mobile market, broadband has been the fastest growing telecom market segment in Asia. The energetic expansion of broadband, however, has remained more of a phenomenon limited to the developed economies, with narrowband dial-up access continuing to be the norm in most of the poorer developing countries of the region. Of course, this is starting to change, with a number of interesting examples breaking the trend, but for the moment, there remains a ‘digital gap’. In those economies where the broadband market is taking off, both DSL and cable modem platforms have both proved popular, but DSL has established a clear advantage. With DSL dominating the world market, Asia has become the leading region in the world for DSL, with about 38% of the global DSL subscribers. More recently, we have seen the advent of FttH as an alternative platform for broadband access in Asia. In the leading technology markets of Japan and South Korea, FttH has already started displacing other forms of high speed Internet access.

 

With broadband Internet continuing to take Asia by storm, the region’s broadband market finds itself dominated by six players. These ‘High’ ranked markets are predominantly the economies of North Asia. South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Taiwan and Japan, for the moment at least, have left the rest of the region behind in terms of both penetration and sophistication of their broadband services and infrastructure.

 

And of these, South Korea is the most remarkable example of the Asian broadband revolution. With a broadband subscriber penetration of over 32%, close to 85% of households in the country have a high speed broadband Internet connection.

 

South Korea – broadband subscribers and households – June 2009

Category

Subscribers

Broadband subscribers:

 

·         Total No. of subscribers

15,876,990

·         Annual growth

3.5%

·         Broadband (population) penetration

32.7%

·         Proportion of all Internet subscribers

98%

Broadband households:

 

·         No. of residential broadband subscribers(e)

14,290,000

·         Proportion of all households

85%

(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)

 

Although the regional broadband market is dominated by a relatively small number of countries in Asia Pacific, there continues to be considerable activity in the Internet and online markets across Asia. In terms of sheer broadband Internet numbers, China (over 90 million broadband subscribers) is already making its presence felt as a player, despite its relatively modest user penetration when measured against the leading markets.

 

Again, we see those economies that fall outside the top band of Asian Internet markets. In terms of broadband household penetration two distinct lower groupings appear. The countries in the second band – roughly between 5% and 20% household penetration – are found to be busily in expansion mode when it comes to their Internet market segments. But there is a clear gap - more than 30% on the household penetration scale - to be bridged before they claim a position in the top grouping. With Malaysia and Vietnam playing significant roles in this middle group, we typically find that in the last few years both operators and governments in these markets have started to give priority to expanding Internet access and speed. There are a few newcomers to this group, too, the standout one being Kazakhstan, where the broadband market has been growing at an annual rate in excess of 200%. Of course, as noted already we find China in this grouping as it battles to provide Internet access for its huge population.

 

In the third grouping – those markets with a user penetration 2% or less - we find those countries that, for whatever reason, have not yet ‘got their act together’ when it comes to Internet. Of course, some are performing relatively well under difficult circumstances. Indonesia has major infrastructure challenges to overcome in providing Internet to its citizens across a sprawling archipelago. India, like China, is struggling with its huge population and has focused on its mobile telephony services. At the bottom end of the scale, however, we find a number of countries that simply have to manage with poor telecom infrastructure and generally underdeveloped regulatory regimes.

 

Asia’s broadband – markets ranked by household penetration - June 2009

Market ranking

Penetration range

(as proportion of all households)

Market (household penetration)

High

>50%

South Korea (85%)

Singapore (82%)

Hong Kong (80%)

Macau (72%)

Taiwan (64%)

Japan (54%)

Medium

2-40%

Malaysia (21%)

China (20%)

Brunei (18%)

Maldives (15%)

Kazakhstan (15%)

Vietnam (12%)

Philippines (10%)

Thailand (8%)

Georgia (4%)

Low

0-2%

Azerbaijan (2%)

India (2%)

Indonesia (1%)

+ 18 other countries in Asia

(Source: BuddeComm, estimates)

 

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

Related Reports

Share this Report

TMT Intelligence

A platform to scale your intelligence tasks

Monitor critical insights with our AI-powered Market Intelligence Platform gathering and analyzing intelligence in real time. With AI trained to spot emerging trends and detect new strategic opportunities, our clients use TMT Intelligence to accelerate their growth.

If you want to know more about it, please see:

TMT Intelligence Platform

Research Methodology

BuddeComm's strategic business reports contain a combination of both primary and secondary research statistics, analyses written by our senior analysts supported by a network of experts, industry contacts and researchers from around the world as well as our own scenario forecasts.

For more details, please see:

Research Methodology

More than 4,000 customers from 140 countries utilise BuddeComm Research

Are you interested in BuddeComm's Custom Research Service?

News & Views

Have the latest telecommunications industry news delivered to your inbox by subscribing to BuddeComm's weekly newsletter.

Unsubscribe