Ovum, the analyst and consulting company, has announced the fastest-growing broadband markets, highlighting key factors that have helped shape them. The report benchmarks countries from Asia-Pacific, Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East & Africa.
Infrastructure competition, relative pricing and regulatory involvement have been identified as common factors driving broadband growth in these markets. Qualitative analysis also highlights unique market characteristics at a country level.
'At a time when broadband is quickly reaching saturation point in most developed markets, less-developed markets across the globe continue to exhibit extremely high levels of growth. However, in many of these countries huge barriers still exist that could limit the broadband markets', says Ovum Analyst Jonathan Coham, based in London. The top ten comprised Greece, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Ukraine, Ireland, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia and Turkey.
'Wealth relative to the cost of broadband is a major consideration in most of these markets. Broadband ISPs in Greece, Turkey, Ireland and Russia all offer cheap services relative to the average disposable income, in order to make broadband attractive to greater proportions of the country. This has helped drive uptake of broadband services.'
'Regulation surrounding wholesale and local loop unbundling (LLU) of broadband pricing (in the case of DSL) is also a major factor to consider in these regions, as is fixed line and PC penetration. In a growing number of cases, demand for content is helping to fuel broadband growth, as operators incorporate TV and video on demand services into their offerings early on.'