isen.blog

Japan's broadband per capita has gone from a rank of 13 worldwide (2002) to 8 (2003) and probably higher by now. Meanwhile, the U.S. has fallen from 11 (2002) to 13 (2003) and probably lower by now.

I just finished writing an article for VON Magazine on this, but it will not be out until September. But I wanted to document the references right now, before I loose 'em.

The 2002 ITU data to support this observation are here, and the 2003 data can be gleaned from this.

Adam Peake was extremely useful in helping me get started -- thanks, Adam!!! Adam's excellent article comparing the communications revolution in the U.K., Korea and Japan appears here and his further notes are here.

Adam also points to an insightful article by Nobuo Ikeda, entitled Three Lessons Americans Can Learn from Japan's Success in Broadband. Ikeda also recommends his article, The Unbundling of Network Elements Japan's Experience.

The Japanese usage counts from MHPHT, updated every month -- and only a month or two late -- are here.

Here are my naive projections from the 2002 ITU data (assuming that the 2001-2002 growth rate holds for 2002-2003 and 2003-2004). Note that I do not use these data directly in my soon-to-be-published article, but instead rely on the 2003 ITU data.

[Anybody know how to do a table in Blogger?]
Growth2001-2;Rank2002;Rank2003;Rank2004
S. Korea;24%;1;2;8
Hong Kong;38%;2;5;11
Canada;27%;3;12;12
Taiwan;86%;4;7;9
Iceland;138%;5;4;3
Denmark;107%;6;6;5
Belgium;90%;7;9;10
Sweden;48%;8;13;13
Austria;123%;9;11;7
Netherlands;127%;10;10;6
United States;46%;11;15;15
Switzerland;308%;12;3;2
Japan;176%;13;8;4
Singapore;73%;14;14;14
Finland;426%;15;1;1