South Korea has surpassed Hong Kong and Japan in broadband quality for the second consecutive year, setting a new global benchmark for speed and penetration, a study said on Monday.

The annual survey by the universities of Oxford and Oviedo and sponsored by Cisco Systems found that broadband quality, as measured by download speeds, upload speeds and penetration across 72 countries had improved by 24 percent in a year, and by 50 percent in three years.

To read this Reuters report in full, see:
in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-52254720101018

Also see:

UK net is “not ready” for future
The UK is slowly climbing up the broadband world rankings, but is still not “ready for tomorrow,” according to a global study of net services.

The annual report, commissioned by network giant Cisco, looks at how well countries are doing in terms of both quality and penetration of net services.

The UK is now ranked 18th out of 72 countries, up from 25th place last year.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11551200

Third annual broadband study shows global broadband quality improves by 24% in one year [news release]

• Third annual study from Saïd Business School, Oxford University, looks at broadband quality in 72 countries and 239 cities
• 14 countries (1 in 5) already prepared for the Internet “applications of tomorrow”, compared to only 1 country in 2008
• 38 countries, 53% of the total, have conquered the digital quality divide, with less evident differences between the broadband quality inside and outside their main cities, an improvement of 58% in just one year
• Study reaffirms positive link between broadband leadership and innovation economies
• Many emerging economies are ‘leapfrogging’ by focusing on bringing the best broadband to their cities, acknowledging their impact on the economy
• 38 cities already have the broadband quality required for the applications of tomorrow, ready to support smart and connected communities
• Mobile broadband quality has improved significantly, with 10% of mobile broadband users already enjoying similar quality experiences compared to those with fixed-line broadband
• Broadband consumption patterns are diverging, from a basic household requiring over 2 Mbps and consuming about 20 GB per month, to a smart and connected home commanding over 20 Mbps and a consumption of 500 GB per month

LONDON, 18 October 2010: The results of the third annual study of the quality of broadband connections around the globe reveals continued improvements worldwide, with more countries already prepared for the applications of tomorrow than in previous years and two thirds of the countries analyzed meeting or surpassing today’s needs. Overall, thanks to a range of investments in infrastructure, global broadband quality has improved by 50% in just three years and penetration of broadband continues to improve, with about half of the households (49%) of the countries investigated now having access to broadband (up from 40% in 2008).

Using the data from 40 million real-life broadband quality tests conducted in May-June of 2010 on the Internet speed testing site, speedtest.net, the researchers were able to evaluate the broadband quality of 72 countries around the globe.

Quality was evaluated by scoring the combined download throughput, upload throughput, and latency capabilities of a connection, the key criteria for a connection’s ability to handle specific Internet applications, from consumer telepresence to online video and social networking. These criteria are expressed as a single ‘Broadband Quality Score’ for each country. By combining this Broadband Quality Score with broadband penetration figures for each country (i.e. the proportion of households who have access to broadband, obtained from Point Topic in 2010), the researchers were able to map out the world’s broadband leaders - those with the best combination of broadband quality and penetration (Note: For a full explanation of how the scores are calculated, see page 4 of the Broadband Quality Study 2010).

Building on last year’s study, the 2010 data also includes analysis of the broadband quality of 239 cities, providing further insight into the evolution of smart connected communities around the world.

The measurement of mobile broadband quality, first introduced to the study last year, has also been expanded significantly to include 68 countries (94% of the overall sample). The research has also explored the patterns of broadband consumption per household and evaluated the impact these will have on overall broadband quality requirements.

The study was conducted by a team of MBA students from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics, and sponsored by Cisco.

Key Facts/Highlights

Global broadband quality continues to improve at a pace

• Overall broadband quality has increased by 48% since 2008 (although some countries have shown significantly larger improvements):

- The average global download speed has increased 49% in just three years (3,271 Kbps in 2008, 4882 Kbps in 2009 and 5,920 Kbps in 2010)
The average global upload speed has increased 69% in three years (794 Kbps in 2008, 1,345 Kbps in 2009. 1,777 Kbps in 2010)
- Average latency has fallen by 25% to 142ms. This is slightly up from 140ms in 2009, but still significantly lower than 189ms in 2008

48 countries, (66%), are meeting the requirements to enjoy all the major services offered by the Internet today (defined in the study as social networking, low-definition video streaming, basic video-conferencing, small file sharing), as well as not so demanding applications (such as instant messaging, email, web browsing). This adds ten countries since 2009, and 18 since 2008. This is in spite of global Internet traffic volumes rising by 166% from 2008-2010 (source: Cisco Visual Networking Index 2010)
Fourteen countries are already prepared for the “Internet applications of tomorrow”, such as high definition Internet TV and high quality video communications services (consumer telepresence) which are expected to become mainstream in just a few years time. These countries are: South Korea, Japan, Latvia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Lithuania, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, Portugal, Denmark and Iceland. This is up from nine countries in 2009 and just one in 2008 (Japan). Nevertheless, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Lithuania have limited penetration rates compared to the others

• South Korea tops the broadband leadership ranking for the second year in a row:

- Broadband quality in South Korea is ranked the highest and has set a new benchmark for the world
- Average download throughput is 33.5 Mbps, an increase of 55% from 2009, average upload throughput is 17 Mbps, an increase of 430%, and average latency is 47ms, an improvement of 35% vs. 2009 figure
- 100% broadband penetration

This Cisco news release can be seen in full with tables at:
newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2010/prod_101710.html