Mobile Broadband Adoption Now 68 Percent in OECD

Mobile broadband penetration has grown to 68.4 percent in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, according to June 2013 data.

Mobile broadband subscriptions in the 34-country group were up about 17 percent from 2012, reaching a mid-2013 total of 851 million subscriptions.

Six countries (Australia, Denmark, Finland, Korea, Japan and Sweden) already have broken the 100 percent mobile broadband penetration level, while Australia saw a 13 percent surge in smartphone subscriptions in the first half of 2013 to reach mobile broadband penetration of about 117 percent.

Overall  there are now more than two mobile broadband subscriptions for every three persons, and mobile broadband now outnumbers fixed broadband access by quite some measure within the OECD nations.

Fixed network broadband subscriptions in the OECD area reached 332 million as of June 2013, making an average penetration of 26.7 percent.

Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark remained adoption leaders with 44 percent, 40 percent and 40 percent adoption, respectively, according to OECD figures.

Digital subscriber line remains the prevalent fixed network access technology, making up 53 percent of fixed broadband subscriptions.

Optical fiber access now represents about 16 percent of subscriptions. Cable modem connections now represent 31 percent of subscriptions.

The OECD says that revenues from data services are growing at double-digit rates in most OECD countries and, in line with the surge of broadband wireless subscriptions, are now the main source of growth for network operators. In part that is because voice prices are dropping. Prices for mobile voice services declined significantly from 2010 to 2012.

A laptop-based mobile broadband service with 500 MB per month of usage costs USD 13.04 on average across the OECD in purchasing power parity terms, although it reaches USD 30 in some countries.

The average cost for a 10GB plan was USD 37.15 PPP. A 250 MB tablet package cost USD 11.02 PPP per month on average and a 5 GB basket for tablets cost USD 24.88 PPP on average.