DSL Prime: Q3 Statistics Are In

Broadband statistics reveal growth in the usual areas, but growth rates are slowing. Arab nations see growth but continue to censor the internet.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV [January 4, 2007]

75 percent up in Saudi Arabia and GCC
From 290,000 to 530,000
The hundred eighty thousand ports of ADSL2+ Alcatel sold the Saudis are being rapidly taken up, and Mark Rotter of IDC believes Saudi Arabia is now passing the UAE as broadband leader in the Gulf. Prices remain generally high, typically twice what similar service costs in Europe, but have been declining. Several major undersea fibers come to the Gulf, so international connectivity is reasonably priced.

Alcatel is the primary DSLAM vendor to the Saudis, working through local partner Advanced Electronics Company, a well-connected defense contractor. That's probably a smart move, given the prosecution of Lucent for bribing Saudi officials a few years back. Zhone has customers in the Emirates, while Thomson and Siemens/Efficient have the largest share of the modem market. Linksys' Mohammed Hoda confirms to Gulf News "The DSL market is just exploding," with his sales jumping 117 percent.

Saudi Arabia actively censors the Internet. Jonathan Zittrain and Ben Edelman of Harvard Berkman document blocking of sites such as Amnesty International, Hizbollah.org, Baha'i.org, and Women in American History at Encyclopedia Britannica. "A 2001 Council of Ministers prohibits users within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from publishing or accessing certain content on the Internet. The government's Internet Services Unit (ISU) operates the high-speed data links that connect the country to the international Internet"

Zawya Arab News presents a story worth repeating to avoid the typical Western stereotypes. "Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said yesterday that AIDS patients in the Kingdom could receive free medicine at any government hospital….Dr. Al-Manie shook the hands of each person with AIDS he met … In a very moving gesture, the minister hugged a seven-year-old Saudi child infected with AIDS." Prejudice against Islam in the West is ultimately self-defeating.

Q3 growth good, but slightly down
Q3 DSL net additions were led by China, the U.S., and Big Europe. An interesting group of middle income countries followed. These latest numbers are from Point-Topic. Good to see India, Argentina, Russia, Malaysia, and Vietnam and Greece starting to rank

Growth

China 2,900,000	Brazil 299,000
USA 1,285,252	Mexico 292,369
France 898,000	Spain 228,600
UK 618,000	India 212,770
Germany 537,000	Australia 201,800
Italy 458,000	Poland 168,846
Turkey 389,930	Canada 165,536
	Argentina 143,900
	Russia 138,200
	Taiwan 135,000
	Netherlands 117,000
	Malaysia 93,000
	Viet Nam 70,000
	Greece 68,628

Japan added a remarkable 1,114,200 fiber customers to reach 7,621,000, while DSL was virtually flat. That raised them to #3 when I run "all broadband" on the very helpful Point Topic Global Database. Adding cable modem subscribers puts the U.S. total on top, with China and Japan, also large populations, following.

Total

USA 54,558,316	Italy 8,377,550
China 48,576,000	Canada 7,615,107
Japan 25,843,600	Spain 6,091,766
	Brazil 5,348,750
South Korea 13,898,491	Netherlands 4,715,700
Germany 12,744,050	Taiwan 4,650,000
France 12,643,300	Australia 3,618,300
UK 12,317,400	Mexico 3,236,534
	Russia 2,695,700
	Turkey 2,502,887
	Sweden 2,413,950
	Poland 2,253,220
	Belgium 2,206,400

The top of the list is totally different when adjusted for number of households. Korea, Hong Kong, Israel, and Taiwan move to the top, followed by cold countries Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Canada. Perhaps cold climates keep people indoors. Then there's a cluster of Japan, U.K., France, and the U.S.A. all between 50 percent and 53 percent. The outliers among affluent countries are Spain (44 percent), Italy (40 percent), and Germany (33 percent), where the regulator has allowed monopoly pricing for too long.

Penetration

South Korea 92.65 percent	Finland 57.61 percent
Hong Kong 84.99 percent	Norway 57.18 percent
Iceland 83.36 percent	Sweden 55.84 percent
Israel 72.58 percent
Singapore 70.11 percent	Japan 53.72 percent
	UK 51.31 percent
Taiwan 67.68 percent	Belgium 51.29 percent
Denmark 66.81 percent	France 51.16 percent
Netherlands 66.61 percent	USA 50.20 percent
Switzerland 64.64 percent
Canada 63.18 percent	Estonia 48.42 percent
	Australia 48.06 percent

Copyright 2007 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

"The power of the printing press belongs solely to those who own the presses"
—A.J. Leibling

The Internet is the cheapest printing press ever invented.