Top > Webmaster > 2006 > April > 2006-04-18

Iceland Shows Highest Percentage of Broadband Users

A new survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that Iceland is leading the scope with the highest concentration of broadband Internet users for 2005. Numbers show that 26.7 percent of Iceland citizens are using a broadband link to the net. Although Iceland has the highest percentage of users, the United States still leads in absolute numbers.

The number of broadband connections in Iceland grew to 78,017 by the end of 2005, from a penetration rate of 18.2 percent a year earlier, when it lagged Korea, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The number of broadband subscriptions throughout the OECD countries grew to 158 million by December 2005 from 136 million six months earlier. This is an average of 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in the entire OECD.

The United States, with 16.8 percent broadband penetration, counted 49.39 million subscribers in 2005, compared with 22.52 million in Japan, which has 17.6 percent penetration. The fastest broadband download speeds are in Japan and Korea because of fiber-optic cable connections.