Broadband overview: Asia-Pacific

Broadband overview: Asia-Pacific

The development of the broadband markets in Asia-Pacific varies widely. Speeds range from the world’s slowest to the fastest, penetration ranges from the world’s highest to lowest, and pricing ranges from the world’s most expensive to cheapest.

Broadband connections in New Zealand, Malaysia and Thailand grow rapidly and the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia are at the beginning of growth curves. However, in some markets such as Australia and Singapore growth is slowing, and Korea, and to a lesser extent Japan and Taiwan, are approaching saturation. These saturating markets lead the world in terms of penetration which is now in excess of 80% in Korea. This is resulting in a change of strategy. Operators are growing broadband revenues by upselling to higher value plans value-added services, such as IPTV, VoD and new innovative pricing plans. Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx), including fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) led by Japan, and next-generation network (NGN) deployments are also occurring.

In developing markets, despite strong growth, there are still significant barriers that are limiting broadband take-up. Many countries suffer from low-PC and wireline penetration, limited broadband availability and high prices. Fixed-to-mobile substitution (FMS) is continuing to advance and there is very little new copper being installed. Instead, operators are focusing on wireless local loop (WLL), particularly in rural areas. Many future broadband connections will therefore come from wireless. These factors coupled with high mobile penetration are making it increasingly unlikely that the PC with a fixed Internet connection will take the Internet to the mass market.

Most governments have recognised the importance of broadband development for economic and productivity reasons and have used policies to stimulate growth. In both developing and developed markets, action has been taken to increase penetration, broadband accessibility and available speeds. Broadband availability has become a policy objective for governments who view that without broadband take-up their countries will become a technical laggard. Various national ICT initiatives and policies have included promoting facilities-based competition, price setting and targets for connections or fibre-deployment.

Flat-rate data packages are common and competition is mostly based around speed and pricing. Speeds of 50Mbit/s and 100Mbit/s are now common in select areas with even 1Gbit/s available in some markets. However, many areas still only have access to speeds below 10Mbit/s and 512k is a common connection speed. Regulation is also giving more access to incumbent infrastructure and encouraging more DSLAM deployments. WiMAX, 3G mobile technologies and other wireless broadband solutions are also being deployed. Lower entry-level pricing, more pervasive access to broadband and new services will ensure continued growth.

Table of contents

Ovum view

Scope

Overview

Connections and penetration
Competition
DSL is the leading broadband technology
Country sheets

Australia

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Others
Company analysis
Singapore

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
Japan

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
New Zealand

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
Malaysia

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
Thailand

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
Philippines

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
Vietnam

Key figures
Indonesia

Key figures
Key broadband operators
Company analysis
Korea

Technology
Key figures
Key broadband operators
Others
Company analysis
Table of figures

Figure 1 Total broadband connections by region
Figure 2 Total residential broadband penetrations in Asia-Pacific
Figure 3 Change in broadband connections during 2005 and Q1 2006 market household penetration.
Figure 4 Incumbent retail market share
Figure 5 Broadband connection technologies in 2005
Figure 6 Internet connections
Figure 7 Broadband subscribers by technology
Figure 8 Australia in figures
Figure 9 Top-level broadband figures for Australia
Figure 10 Incumbent
Figure 11 Operator subscribers
Figure 12 Internet connections
Figure 13 Broadband subscribers by technology
Figure 14 Singapore in figures
Figure 15 Top-level broadband figures for SingTel
Figure 16 Key broadband operator figures
Figure 17 Internet connections
Figure 18 Broadband connections by technology
Figure 19 Japan in figures
Figure 20 Top-level broadband figures for Japan
Figure 21 Operator broadband subscribers
Figure 22 Internet connections
Figure 23 Broadband subscribers by technology
Figure 24 New Zealand in figures
Figure 25 Top-level broadband figures for New Zealand
Figure 26 Operators
Figure 27 Malaysia in figures
Figure 28 Top-level broadband figures for Malaysia
Figure 29 Operators
Figure 30 Internet connections
Figure 31 Broadband subscribers by technology
Figure 32 Thailand in figures
Figure 33 Top-level broadband figures for Thailand
Figure 34 Operator statistics
Figure 35 Philippines in figures
Figure 36 Top-level broadband figures for Philippines
Figure 37 Operators
Figure 38 Vietnam in figures
Figure 39 Top-level broadband figures for Vietnam
Figure 40 Internet connections
Figure 41 Broadband subscribers by technology
Figure 42 Indonesia in figures
Figure 43 Top-level broadband figures for Indonesia
Figure 44 DSL
Figure 45 Internet connections ‘000s’
Figure 46 Broadband subscribers by technology
Figure 47 Korea broadband in figures
Figure 48 Top-level broadband figures for Korea
Figure 49 DSL
Figure 50 Cable modem
Figure 51 Fibre LAN