The United States jumped from 24th place to 7th place in wireless broadband penetration worldwide, according to a recent survey. Korea, Sweden and Finland top all countries in wireless broadband subscribers.
US Jumps to 7th in Wireless Broadband Penetration
The US jumped from 24th place to 7th place in wireless broadband penetration worldwide, according to a survey from the OECD (see Figure 1). Korea leads all countries surveyed with 100.6 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (more than 100% penetration, no doubt from multiple devices), followed by
Sweden at 98%, Finland at 87.8%, Japan at 82.4%, Denmark at 81.5%, Norway at 77.9%, and the US at 76.1%. In our last wireless survey the US was at 54% penetration (see the September 2011 Bandwidth Report for details).
Figure 1: Wireless Broadband Penetration by Country – December 2011
Source: OECD
Wireless Broadband Trends
The top three countries (Korea, Sweden and Finland) have most of their wireless broadband subscribers from dedicated data subscriptions (see Figure 2). Japan had all of its wireless broadband subscribers from standard wireless plans, and could improve its position (and data speeds) by offering more dedicated data plans.
Figure 2: Wireless Broadband Penetration by Country and Technology – December 2011
Source: OECD
Overall, standard mobile accounts for 60.5% of subscribers worldwide, with 38.6% on dedicated data plans, 0.7% on fixed terrestrial plans, and 0.2% on satellite (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Wireless Broadband Penetration by Technology – December 2011
Source: OECD
Further Reading
- Organization for Economic Development
- December 2011 Broadband Survey (July 2012).
- US Wireless Broadband Penetration 24th Worldwide
- The US ranks 24th in wireless broadband penetration worldwide, according to an ITU survey.