Access points

United States – The broadband subscriber base in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to reach 321.8 million by 2013, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.9 percent, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan. Overall broadband revenue is expected to reach $42 billion at 7.1 percent CAGR in the same year.

The report forecasts that by 4Q 2008, Asia-Pacific broadband users will total 171 million, up by 31.5 percent from 129.7 million in the previous year. It attributes this to the popularity of various Internet services that require high-speed Internet access for realtime viewing or fast downloading. Among these services are video-on-demand (VOD) and video sharing sites like YouTube, Web-based multiplayer games, as well as social networking environments like Facebook.

The growth will also be spurred by improved broadband services, lower prices and richer content, especially with more operators offering packages bundled with broadband value-added services (BVAS), such as VoIP and IPTV. As a result, household broadband penetration rate is expected to rise to 19.7 percent by the end of 2008, from 15.2 percent last year. It is foreseen to hit 33.7 percent by 2013.

With 90.8 percent, South Korea has the highest 2007 penetration rate among the 13 Asia-Pacific countries covered in the report. Hong Kong places second with 83.8 percent and Taiwan, third, with 76.8 percent. Countries with lowest penetration rates are India with 1.4 percent, and Indonesia with 0.57 percent.

Local government projects aiming to develop and expand network infrastructure and coverage have contributed to this increasing penetration rate, the report says.

Alternative access technologies on the rise

Frost & Sullivan says that although most broadband services are currently ruled by DSL-based access solutions, optical fiber-based and wireless broadband technologies will soon gain wider presence.

The fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) network architecture includes fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) and fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) systems. These systems use optical fiber instead of copper local loop for greater bandwidth capacity. Up to 1Gbps speed is already available in Hong Kong, while Singapore is set to offer the same, the report says.

WiMAX, on the other hand, supports wireless data transmission through various ways such as point-to-point links or full mobile cellular type access.

In addition, advanced services such as multiscreen IPTV viewing and recording are supported through optical fiber deployed near households. IPTV services over FTTH technology, however, cause skepticism from operators as such services usually have longer payback periods. Low-to medium-density geographies such as in Australia and Malaysia prefer FTTN.

Technology adoption depends on factors such as the country’s existing infrastructure and the operator’s strategies.