South Korea leads the world in providing broadband services, according to a study released last week. The United States did not make the top 10. The study, sponsored by Cisco, examined 66 countries and 240 cities. Broadband leadership was measured by various factors, including the number of wired households, where South Korea scored 97%. Hong Kong, which was rated number three in overall broadband leadership, had an even higher penetration, at 99%.
South Korea dramatically improved the speed, quality and availability of its Internet service in 2009, pushing past Japan, the former worldwide leader, according to a team of business students from the University of Oxford in England and the University of Oviedo in Spain.
Key facts of this report:
Overall average broadband quality increased across the globe:
- Global average download throughput increased by 49% to 4.75 Megabits per second (Mbps)
- Global average upload throughput increased by 69% to 1.3 Mbps
- Global average latency decreased by 21% to 170 milliseconds
In terms of overall leadership, Hong Kong was followed by Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark and Norway. The United States did not make the list’s top 10, even though it made “significant, above average improvements” in quality, the study said.
In terms of broadband Internet quality, the U.S. lags behind not only Sweden, which leads Europe, but the island nations of Malta and Iceland, and the former Soviet Bloc country of Lithuania.
Here is the appendix of this report.
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