• Broadband communication networks and the services provided over them support a variety of economic and social development goals, relating to health, financial inclusion, and education, among many others. ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database shows that fixed broadband subscriptions have increased by 89% worldwide within just seven years – from 532 million in 2010 to one billion in 2017. Switzerland has the highest fixed broadband penetration in the OECD, with almost one subscription for every two inhabitants, while the OECD average is just below one per three inhabitants.

  • Growth in mobile broadband subscriptions has far outstripped fixed broadband growth since 2010, with worldwide subscriptions increasing from 825 million in 2010 to 4.6 billion in 2017 (ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database), and now accounting for 82% of all broadband access paths in the world (77% in the OECD area). Mobile broadband take-up is much higher than fixed broadband take-up relative to population size, with around three subscriptions per two inhabitants in Japan and Finland, and an OECD average of one subscription per inhabitant. In all countries, the majority of subscriptions include both calls and data, though data-only subscriptions have over 40% market share in Estonia and Japan.

  • Access speeds determine the applications the Internet can be used for – by both businesses and consumers. In terms of retail (consumer) service offers, speeds vary considerably, with most consumer fixed broadband subscriptions already marketed at over 10 Mbps. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of subscriptions still offer between 2 Mbps and 10 Mbps. As of 2017, the leading advertised download speed in OECD countries was 10 Gbps (10 000 Mbps), though only a small number of consumer offers were available at that level. Offers marketed at 1 Gbps are increasingly common in countries where fibre to the premises or upgraded cable broadband networks are in place. This is particularly the case in countries with high population densities, such as Japan and Korea, as well as in an increasing number of cities in the United States. Gigabit speeds are most commonly found where there is either strong infrastructure competition between operators or competition between retail providers using wholesale networks.

  • The Internet is a key infrastructure for businesses, individuals, and the public sector alike and continues to expand rapidly. Originally designed as a research network, the Internet’s subsequent commercialisation and expansion have necessitated updates to the data protocols that ensure its functioning. IPv6 was introduced in 1999 to succeed IPv4 and provides significantly greater address space but is being implemented relatively slowly. While around 50% of Internet traffic in Belgium uses the IPv6 data protocol, the share in most countries appears to be 20% or less.

  • Broadband connections in households are an indicator of people’s access to information and services. Disparities in broadband access are partly explained by urban-rural divides within countries, particularly in countries with lower per capita incomes. Urban-rural divides in access can occur for a variety of reasons including fixed broadband networks not extending into some rural areas (lack of availability), lower uptake in rural areas, which may be associated with broadband prices being higher in harder-to-serve areas, incomes being lower, etc., and divides in terms of broadband quality (speed, latency, reliability and so on. See page 3.7 for more information).

  • The term “Internet of Things” (IoT) refers to the connection of an increasing number of devices and objects over time to the Internet. Following the convergence of fixed and mobile networks, and between telecommunications and broadcasting, the IoT represents the next step in the convergence between ICTs and economies and societies. It holds the promise to substantially contribute to further innovation, growth and social prosperity, and as with any such development, policy makers and other stakeholders need evidence to inform the decisions they will take in the coming years. Accordingly, the Cancun Declaration (https://oe.cd/DigitalEcoDeclaration) invited the OECD to further work on emerging technologies, including the Internet of Things, to enable countries to fully embrace their benefits and to strengthen the collection of internationally comparable statistics (OECD, 2016).

  • The actual performance of broadband connections, (i.e. broadband quality), is critical to meeting consumers’, policy makers’, and regulators’ various objectives. Broadband performance is a fundamental metric for consumers to make informed choices, as it reflects the quality of their experience and enables them to assess any differences between advertised speeds and actual speeds. For policy-makers and regulators, being able to assess broadband performance is essential to ensuring the accessibility of online services and to ascertaining whether services are meeting their goals for overall market development (e.g. competitiveness, coverage). In 2012, the OECD was tasked with assessing available datasets that provide robust data offering like-for-like comparisons over time, and with working towards a long-term goal of co-ordinated measurement of speed and other service qualities (OECD, 2012).