Global village goes broadband

One in five households worldwide will have a fixed broadband Internet connection in the home by the end of the year, according to IT research and advisory company Gartner Inc. That works out to 422 million households, up from 382 million last year, and nearly 580 million households are expected to have a fixed broadband connection by 2013.

“Multiple motivations are conspiring to keep broadband growth strong,” says Amanda Sabia, principal research anaylst at Gartner. These include more affordable PCs and broadband subscriptions, migration from dial-up and aging populations requiring broadband connectivity.

At the end of 2008, nearly seven in 10 (69%) Canadian homes had broadband connections, a rate matched or bettered by only five other countries: Switzerland, 69%;Hong Kong, 72%; Denmark, 75%; Netherlands, 80%; and South Korea 86%.