Koreans Lead in Broadband Usage

Korea leads the world in broadband usage, according to data from 11 countries compiled by NetValue, followed by the United States. France has the highest percentage of broadband users in Europe.

More than half of online Korean households use broadband, compared to only one in 32 in Britain. Britain trails the rest of Europe, Asia and the United States in broadband connections.

Only 5 percent of the Internet households in Germany are using broadband, but Germany leads the other countries studied by NetValue in ISDN usage. In February 2001, 37.8 percent of German Internet households connected to the Net via ISDN, followed by Denmark’s 19.5 percent of households.

In the United States, 11 percent of Internet households had a broadband connection in February 2001. Infrastructure issues and access costs still have a strong effect on broadband penetration in the United States, but there has been relative growth in the past six months. Specific user groups in the United States have also emerged as early adopters of broadband. It appear that parents of children are likely to use broadband, because the 14 and under age group accounted for 9.1 percent of users connecting via broadband in February 2001. The 14 and under age group accounts for only 6.7 percent of modem usage and 6.8 percent of the Internet population. The male population has also been quick to adopt broadband. Males account for 59.7 percent of the broadband users in the United States, while women account for 40.3 percent.

The NetValue data also shows the relationship between broadband access and online audio/video usage. For example, 73.9 percent of the Korean Internet population audio or video in February and 54.1 percent used a gaming protocol. More than one-third of the Internet users in Hong Kong used audio/video. Spain had the highest audio/video usage in Europe (33.8 percent), compared to 29.5 percent of U.S. Internet users and 23.8 percent of U.K. Internet users.

According to data from Nielsen//NetRatings, Koreans connected to the Web for an average of 16 hours in January. This exceeds the average Internet connection time of the United States, which was slightly less than 10 hours for the same period.

According to a study Statistical Research Inc., of those with high-speed Internet access, about 75 percent reported broadband has changed their Web habits. Some respondents said broadband had led them to devote more time to the Web, while others indicated that its speed allowed them to get their Internet tasks done more quickly and move on to other activities.

Broadband Connections by Nation/Technology At-home Internet users
Nation	Cable	Satellite	ADSL	T1/ Leased Line	Total Broadband
Korea	18.6%	0.1%	38.6%	0	57.3%
U.S.	7.6%	0.5%	2.8%	0.2%	11.1%
Hong Kong	6.0%	0.9%	1.2%	0	8.13%
Singapore	6.6%	n/a	0.5%	0	7.1%
Taiwan	3.5%	0.1%	2.6%	0	6.2%
France	4.0%	0.3%	1.7%	0	6.0%
Denmark	3.4%	0.0%	2.4%	0	5.8%
Germany	2.7%	0.1%	2.2%	0	5.0%
Spain	1.8%	0.2%	1.1%	0	3.1%
U.K.	2.3%	0.3%	0.5%	0	3.1%
China	0.2%	n/a	0.2%	0	0.4%
Source: NetValue