By Jonathan Easton
Fibre internet has surpassed DSL for subscriptions across OECD countries for the first time.
In 2020, a record 21.15 million new fixed broadband connections (including fibre, DSL, cable and others) were recorded, exceeding fixed broadband subscriptions across the OECD’s 38 member countries. The tech now represents 3 per ent of all fixed broadband across the nations, up from 12 per cent a decade ago.
Fibre is by far the fastest growing broadband tech, with subscriptions up 14% in 2020 from 2019, outpacing a 5% rise in overall fixed broadband subscriptions.
But while the high-speed fibre tech is fast-growing, it is still second to cable, which accounts for 34 per cent of subscriptions across OECD countries, rising 5.6 per cent in 2020.
DSL subscriptions meanwhile have dropped by 10 per cent over the past two years.
Austria, Belgium, Chile, Ireland, Israel and the United Kingdom all increased their fibre connections by more than 50 per cent in 2020. In these, and a number of other OECD countries, the majority of broadband connections are now fibre, with the share of fibre in total broadband above 50 per cent in Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and Portugal, and exceeding 70 per cent in Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden.
Across the 38 countries, fixed broadband subscriptions totalled 454 million as of December 2020, up from 433 million a year earlier, and averaged 33.2 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.
