Ireland ranks below OECD average for fixed broadband penetration

18 Jul 2012

Fixed (wired) broadband subscriptions reached 314m in the OECD area at the end of 2011, with year-on-year subscriptions rising by 4.1pc, but Ireland is lagging behind the average number of subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Switzerland has topped the list of OECD countries’ fixed broadband ranking for the first time with 39.9 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, with the Netherlands (39.1) and Denmark (37.9) rounding out the top 3.

The OECD average ranking is currently at 25.6, but Ireland ranks below this at 22.2, representing 993,667 subscriptions.

Irish fixed broadband subscriptions are primarily DSL (16.3) with cable taking 5.8 and fibre/LAN at just 0.1.

OECD graph

DSL subscriptions overall have followed a downward trend, decreasing by 55.8pc and fibre-to-the-home subscriptions now account for 13.7pc of the total.

Wireless broadband also saw growth of more than 13pc in the past six months with Korea (100.6) and Sweden (98.0) achieving the highest ranking.

Across all OECD countries, wireless broadband subscriptions total 667m, an increase from 590m in June 2011.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com