Korea, Iceland, Spain, Finland, and Lithuania lead the OECD with greater than 80% of fastened broadband delivered by way of fiber
In sum – what to know:
Fiber dominates – Fiber penetration throughout OECD nations surged to 47%, changing into the spine of digital economies and overtaking legacy DSL and cable connections.
5G reshapes cell connectivity – 5G now represents 37% of cell broadband subscriptions, led by sturdy adoption in Korea, Denmark and Hungary.
Affordability and IoT enlargement – Broadband costs fell as much as 34% as M2M connections practically doubled, highlighting a shift towards related industries and inexpensive, high-quality networks.
OECD economies have undergone speedy digital transformation between 2019 and 2024, pushed by fiber, 5G, fastened wi-fi entry (FWA) and satellite tv for pc broadband, OECD mentioned in a launch.
The entity famous that the COVID-19 pandemic underscored digital connectivity as essential infrastructure, spurring demand for dependable, high-capacity broadband.
Over 5 years, gigabit broadband presents grew 4.5 instances — from 4% in 2019 to 19% in 2024 — whereas cell knowledge utilization greater than doubled to fifteen GB per subscription monthly, in accordance with the OECD report. Fiber now accounts for 47% of all fastened broadband subscriptions, up from 28% in 2019, and has overtaken legacy copper and cable applied sciences, it added.
Korea, Iceland, Spain, Finland and Lithuania lead the OECD with greater than 80% of fastened broadband delivered by way of fiber. In the meantime, 5G adoption continues to speed up, reaching 37% of all cell broadband subscriptions, led by Denmark, Hungary and Korea.
The report additionally famous that broadband providers have turn out to be extra inexpensive, with cell costs down 34% and glued broadband down 20% between 2020 and 2025. Whereas fastened broadband development has slowed in mature markets, it stays sturdy in rising ones corresponding to Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Türkiye, the place fiber deployment continues to switch older networks.
Cellular broadband subscriptions have continued to develop steadily throughout OECD, increasing by 4.6% per 12 months on between 2019 and 2024. Japan and the USA maintained the very best cell broadband penetration charges, with 210 and 200 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants respectively, adopted by Estonia (177), Israel (167) and Finland (157), above the OECD common of 140.
“Mounted Wi-fi Entry and satellite tv for pc broadband are serving to shut last-mile connectivity gaps, whereas M2M connectivity practically doubled to 642 million energetic SIMs, powering IoT enlargement in transport, vitality and manufacturing. The OECD notes that post-pandemic digital transformation is shifting from entry to the standard, resilience and affordability of broadband providers.
“Mounted Wi-fi Entry (FWA) has turn out to be an essential driver in narrowing spatial connectivity gaps, offering a flexible and quickly implementable complementary fastened broadband entry know-how,” the report acknowledged, including that the share of FWA subscriptions in complete fastened broadband tripled in 5 years, reaching 6% of complete fastened broadband subscriptions inside OECD nations on the finish of 2024, up from 2% in 2019.
“Satellite tv for pc broadband can also be a vital technique of increasing broadband entry in distant areas. Whereas it continues to symbolize a comparatively modest phase of the market, accounting for simply 1% of fastened broadband subscriptions throughout OECD nations on the finish 2024, the know-how has demonstrated constant momentum, particularly with developments in low earth orbit (LEO) constellations and direct-to-device tendencies,” the report added.
