Best Practices Worldwide for Broadband Growth

This paper investigates and analyses the best practices followed by various countries worldwide for supporting the broadband growth. The methodology used to locate the best practices is based on three main steps: (a) the presentation of the main factors that have a major impact on broadband growth; (b) the definition of what is a “best practice” based on quantitative criteria; (c) the calculation of a best practice index and a good practice index, which indicates that a country followed these best or good practices to support its broadband growth respectively. This methodology indicated that Denmark, United States, Japan, Canada and Rep. of Korea followed best practices for their broadband growth, while United Kingdom and the Netherlands followed good practices. Introduction Broadband is a key element of the developments that are taking place in the electronic communications markets. Consumers are benefiting from lower prices and higher speeds and a variety of broadband offers due to increasing competition in this market. For that reason one of the main objectives in many countries is to support broadband growth. For example, broadband is considered crucial to European competitiveness. In this context, the European Commission has been particularly active in promoting broadband developments. The EC adopted an initiative supporting the Lisbon 2010 goals, i2010, where broadband take-up is considered an important factor for the emerging digital economy and competitiveness. The current situation concerning the broadband penetration is presented in Figure 1. According to these data the OECD average is at 11,7% and the EU15 average is at 11,8%. Iceland led the OECD in broadband penetration, with more than 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, while Greece (with broadband penetration at 1,4%) is far behind.