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Broadband Internet access worldwide

Encyclopedia : B : BR : BRO : Broadband Internet access worldwide

This article details the situation of broadband Internet access around the world.

Contents

Broadband subscribers in OECD countries

Broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, by technology, December 2005 in the OECD. ([source])

Rank Country DSL Cable Other Total Total Subscribers
1 Iceland 25.9 0.1 0.6 26.7 78,017
2 South Korea 13.6 8.3 3.4 25.4 12,190,711
3 Netherlands 15.7 9.6 0.0 25.3 4,113,573
4 Denmark 15.3 7.2 2.5 25.0 1,350,415
5 Switzerland 14.7 8.0 0.4 23.1 1,725,446
6 Finland 19.5 2.8 0.1 22.5 1,174,200
7 Norway 17.8 2.9 1.2 21.9 1,006,766
8 Canada 10.1 10.8 0.1 21.9 6,706,699
9 Sweden 13.3 3.4 3.6 20.3 1,830,000
10 Belgium 11.3 7.0 0.0 18.3 1,902,739
11 Japan 11.3 2.5 3.8 17.6 22,515,091
12 United States 6.5 9.0 1.3 16.8 49,391,060
13 United Kingdom 11.5 4.4 0.0 15.9 9,539,900
14 France 14.3 0.9 0.0 15.2 9,465,600
15 Luxembourg 13.3 1.6 0.0 14.9 67,357
16 Austria 8.1 5.8 0.2 14.1 1,155,000
17 Australia 10.8 2.6 0.4 13.8 2,785,000
18 Germany 12.6 0.3 0.1 13.0 10,706,600
19 Italy 11.3 0.0 0.6 11.9 6,896,696
20 Spain 9.2 2.5 0.1 11.7 4,994,274
21 Portugal 6.6 4.9 0.0 11.5 1,212,034
22 New Zealand 7.3 0.4 0.4 8.1 331,000
23 Ireland 5.0 0.6 1.1 6.7 270,700
24 Czech Republic 3.0 1.4 2.0 6.4 650,000
25 Hungary 4.1 2.1 0.1 6.3 639,505
26 Slovak Republic 2.0 0.4 0.2 2.5 133,900
27 Poland 1.6 0.7 0.1 2.4 897,659
28 Mexico 1.5 0.6 0.0 2.2 2,304,520
29 Turkey 2.1 0.0 0.0 2.1 1,530,000
30 Greece 1.4 0.0 0.0 1.4 155,418
OECD 8.4 4.2 1.0 13.6 157,719,880

Millions of DSL lines by countries at the end of 2005, compared to the previous year
Enlarge
Millions of DSL lines by countries at the end of 2005, compared to the previous year

Worldwide major ADSL operators in number of lines, at the end of the first 2005 half
Enlarge
Worldwide major ADSL operators in number of lines, at the end of the first 2005 half

Africa

Egypt

ADSL was introduced commercially to Egypt in 2000. The service was offered in select central offices in big cities such as Cairo and Alexandria and gradually spread to cover many more Governorates of Egypt. There are numerous ISPs in Egypt offering ADSL service although only two companies own the infrastructure and the rest are resellers.

Download/upload speeds are typically:(Monthly Cost)

Estimated Number of subscribers: 100,000 according to a statement by Egypt's Communication and Information Technology minister Dr. Tarek Kamel in Ahram newspaper on Sunday 5 March 2006.

The biggest ISPs are:

Morocco

Operated by [Maroc Telecom]. The service started as a test in November 2002 before it was launched in October 2003. The service is named Menara. It offers the following options:

The ADSL modem, the installation fees and the first three months are free.

South Africa

The first package, a 512/256 Kbps offering, was introduced in August 2002 by national telecoms monopoly Telkom. Later, in response to growing demand for cheaper ADSL options, two more products were introduced: a mid-range 384/128 Kbps offering, and an entry-level 192/64 Kbps one. On 1 September 2005 Telkom released its 1 Mbps offering.

Products currently available through Telkom SA:

Note: In South Africa ADSL charges consist of two parts: the ADSL line rental (as shown above), charged over and above the regular analogue phone line rental (R100 / US$14) and an ISP account. The price of an ISP account can vary greatly, ranging from R72 (~US$10) for a 1 GB hardcapped account to R2800 (US$400) for unshaped / uncapped access with a static IP address. Caps of 3 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB, 20 GB and 30 GB are also available through various ISPs.

ADSL prices in South Africa have been decreasing steadily ever since the service was introduced. More dramatic price reductions, mostly as result of consumer action through groups like Hellkom and MyADSL, saw Telkom's ADSL subscriber base climb from 50,000 to 100,000 between February and August 2005. As of January 2006 Telkom has more than 120,000 ADSL subscribers, with demand still strong.

Video-on-demand trials are currently underway on 4.5 Mbps lines, while draft regulations by regulator ICASA could see more dramatic price cuts in 2006, a move that will almost surely see uptake increase.

Commercial Broadband over Power Lines services are imminently to be rolled out in Tshwane, and may undercut the current ADSL prices by a significant margin. [link]

Americas

Argentina

ADSL first appeared in Argentina in 1998, named Speedy by Telefónica, a Spanish company. Fibertel, a cable provider, remains the most popular, but there are several DSL services, including: In 2004, Arnet announced new plans. Controversy ensued, as in small print it mentioned that it was capped to 4 GB monthly. This plans were never put in practice until late 2005, though they were changed. There are two variants of each of their plans, one which is uncapped and the other is not. They currently offer from 640 Kbps / 128 Kbps to 5 Mbps / 256 Kbps (the highest download rate offered in the country) for home users. The uncapped 5 Mbps plan costs 262 AP (Argentine Pesos), about US$87 at the current exchange. Arnet has been slowly recovering their reputation, which was tarnished amongst connoisseurs due to their 2004 announcement. See: [Arnet prices]
Both [Speedy] and [Flash] have a declining user base, many opting to go the way of Fibertel. Their services are often mentioned to limit P2P download activity. The best connection both ISPs offer is 5 Mbps /512 Kbps. The tendency has been towards lowering costs to the public, instead of making investments to offer higher speeds.

Brazil

Communication groups, the Telefónica, Telemar and Brasil Telecom dispute the largest part of the market offered DSL under the telephone copper net. The speeds vary in 512 Kbps. It is obligatory to contract with an ISP, this being a reason for judicial disputes and controversies. Wireless LAN ISPs are each day more common in the interior of the country. In big cities some WiFi hotspots are available. As of November 2005, some cable companies started do offer 2, 4 and 8 Mbps access (without the need of an ISP to connect, but still required under the contract and by law) for the same price as 512 Kbps ADSL connections.

ADSL was successful in Brazil during beta testing, and became popular in 2000, with the main ISPs being Speedy, Ajato and Velox, with typical speeds of around 256 Kbps down and 128 Kbps up. Speeds are now between 300 Kbps to 1 Mbps, with some high end options of 2, 4 or 8 Mbps, but at significantly higher prices. Broadband access is split between ADSL, cablemodem, satellite and radio (publicized as 'radio internet', but it is actually a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO hardware solution), with some WiFi services appearing in 2004.

Currently (Q1 2006) there are ongoing plans for WiMax rollouts in some major cities by the end of the year by TVA, one of the leading cable internet providers.

Broadband Internet is now going through troubled times in Brazil, because of new imposed limitations in the form of data caps with very high charges for additional traffic. The price of a complete ADSL package (ISP + DSL) is currently (as of late 2004) in the region of R$ 90-120 / US$30-40 .

Canada

The competition between the major broadband Internet providers in Canada has recently caused frequent increases in the available bandwidth provided to home users. As of January 2006, a standard broadband Internet package provides 3.0 Mbps downstream and 800 Kbps upstream rates for both cable- and DSL-based services. Some residential service providers (such as [Cogeco] or [Rogers] or [Shaw]) offer speeds of 5 Mbps or higher. In western Canada some service providers now offer speeds of up to 7 Mbps. As of June 2005 [Eastlink]—an eastern Canada communications company increased their residential broadband service to 10 Mbps.

Bell and their DSL was originally set at 1.5 megabits per second. Essentially the bandwidth required to transmit VGA (640x480) video across a connection compressed to a rather poor quality. This applies to the legal definition of what broadband is in Canada.

In eastern Canada, most of the providers are sharing the same backbone. A PPPoE network is used to connect subscribers to providers. They all offer a standard ADSL link over a residential POTS line. Some are now offering a Dry DSL service also (an ADSL service without a live POTS line).

Bell Canada is the main DSL residential provider through which the High-Speed Sympatico internet service is provided. Bell Canada customers can also use an alternative provider. (listing http://canadianisp.ca ). ADSL is currently in use, but an upgrade to ADSL2+ technology will provide higher speeds in the near future.

Vidéotron offers up to 16mbit internet in Quebec: [Vidéotron]

Chile

There are 799,300 broadband connections in Chile as of March 31 2006, according to a quarterly study titled Barómetro de la Banda Ancha made by International Data Corporation Chile and published by Cisco [link]. This is a 49% increase from March 2005. The number of home broadband connections is 651,710 (81.5% of all broadband connections), which is equivalent to an 18% penetration of Chilean households. The Chilean region with the largest broadband penetration rate is the Atacama Region with 9.2 per 100 inhabitants, surpassing the Santiago Metropolitan Region (7.4 per 100 inhabitants). The nationwide broadband penetration rate is 5.3 per 100 inhabitants. In the study, "broadband" is defined as a permanent (24-hour) connection with a minimum connection speed of 128 Kbps. Companies offering home use broadband connections include:

VTR, Chile's largest cable company, offers several cable modem plans:

Telefónica Chile, Chile's biggest phone company, offers several ADSL plans:

Entel, another major telecommunications company, offers several plans:

Gtd Manquehue offers:

Exchange rate used: US$1 = 560 Chilean pesos

Dominican Republic

Although the Dominican Republic is considered one of the countries with the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in Latin America, with almost 3 million cell phones connected (on just about 10 million populants, with 4 million of them on extreme poverty conditions) and large companies like Verizon (US) and Orange (FR) on the telecommunications market, the broadband Internet access is limited, with just 107,543 internet accounts globally. There is access to regular ADSL services only on metropolitan areas, costs are high and service is decent. Cable Internet is offered by a couple of cable companies at lower costs than ADSL but the service is very deficient and unreliable. WiFi hotspots are almost non-existent, with just a few in university campuses and other not-so-public areas.

Mexico

ISPs that provide ADSL:

Telmex starting selling ISDN connections under the Prodigy Turbo brand name in the mid 90's. The service has now ben replaced for a few years now with ADSL coonections which are sold under the Prodigy Infinitum brand name and offers connection speeds for home users at 512Kb/s, 1Mb/s, 1.25 Mb/s and 2 Mb/s download speeds, the slowest of which costs $349 MXN (a little over $30 USD) a month, all tiers of service are uncapped.

Cable companies also offer broadband services though they usually offer many more tiers of service, the price and connection speeds varie greatly depending on each particular provider.

In addition, wireless internet services are offered in the major cities, Wi-MAX is expected to be available soon.

United States

In the United States, Satellite Internet typically involves equipment and installation costs ranging from $300 to over $600 (the FCC requires professional installation to prevent interference issues), and monthly service costs average from $50 to nearly $80, depending on the speed. In recent times the price has come down. According to an industry trade association, there were 22.5 million cable modem users in the U.S. during Q1 2005, up from 17.4 million in Q1 2004.

In the United States, many different kinds of DSL services are offered by different companies:

External links

Asia

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, as of April 2005 HKBN offers its customers internet access with speeds starting from 10 Mbps (19 USD a month) up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbit/s) (215 USD a month) via Fiber to the Building and Fiber to the Home. However the speed to non-Hong Kong destinations is capped to 20 Mbps.

ADSL providers include:

India

BSNL, Sify, MTNL, Airtel, Reliance and Hathway are some of the major ISPs in India. TRAI has defined broadband as 256 Kbps or higher. However, many ISPs advertise their service as broadband but don't offer the suggested speeds. Recently, Airtel and Hathway have begun offering unlimited downloads starting from 64 Kbps. Broadband in India is very costly compared to Western Europe/UK and USA.

An unlimited download 256 Kbps ADSL broadband connection from Airtel costs about $22/mo. The contention ratios are normally very high and uptime suffers due to various infrastructure problems like road digging, water seeping into cables and overhead cables disrupted due to broken trees during monsoons etc.

Due to liberalization in recent years, many private ISPs have entered the market, many with their own local loop and gateway infrastructures. Right now the market is infinite and competition is fierce to lure prospective customers into buying their services. The quality of service is bad for the same reason. The telecom services market is still regulated by TRAI who charges a huge licensing fee for anyone who enters the market which somewhat restricts the easy entry and exit of a service provider from this arena.

Although broadband law of 2004, changed the definition for broadband to 256 Kbps always on, most ISPs found that they can provide broadband with a capping of data that can be downloaded. ADSL providers include:

Indonesia

There are several ADSL providers but the most well-known is Telkom Speedy, a product of TELKOM, because it is still the only nation-wide telecommunication operator who invests in copper-cable telephone network. All other providers have to rent networks. With ADSL the maximum speed is 384 or 512 Kbps and monthly data transfer quota is chosen among several packages: 750 MB ($30 /mo), 2 GB ($70/mo), and unlimited ($200 /mo).

Iran

ADSL in Iran appeared in January 2004.

Japan

In Japan, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) planned a step-up process from dialup (54 Kbps), ISDN(64 Kbps), to FTTH. Under the plan, NTT had been selling ISDN lines primarily toward private users while corporate users sometimes skipped ISDN entirely and immediately upgraded to the still-expensive FTTH service. In late 1990s, CATV operators began offering their own broadband services, but relatively high initial installation cost and cheaper alternatives limited its spread.

ADSL service started by a venture company, Tokyo Metric in 1999. After this NTT started and some other companies followed. In 2001, SoftBank started ADSL (12 Mbps) service. It was a shocking event, because the price was around only 3000 yen (30US$), which was half of other companies and aggressive marketing campaigns led to capturing large shares of market. Competitors and Softbank each dropped prices in a price war and repeatedly readied higher speed services to entice customers(12 Mbps 24 Mbps, 50 Mbps). In 2004, Japan had the best cost performance ADSL service in the world (50 Mbps, 35US$) which it held on in the successive year.

At the same time, NTT and electric power companies expand FTTH areas. In most urban area, people can use FTTH (100 Mbps, 50US$), but ADSL is still mainstream. However, large discounts and free installation have boosted adoptions. Many new apartments are built to accommodate FTTH service with little or no wiring. In 2005, Kansai Electric Power started 1 Gbit/s FTTH service at 8700yen (90US$).

In September 2000, the MIC (communications ministry) forced Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the incumbent operator, to unbundle its copper local loop. The price was fixed considering the line cost were covered by vocal telephony, alternative operators should only support incremental costs bond to newly offered functions. For the fiscal year 2004, partial unbundling rates were 120¥ per month and 1,300¥ per month for total unbundling.

In 2000, rules for operators colocation inside NTT facilities and lines delivery terms were established. In 2001, NTT were required to unbundle their interconnection optic fibers between exchange points. Finally, It was forbidden for NTT East & NTT West to offer internet access services.

Softbank, a major Nippon ISP, launched in 2001 its DSL service "Yahoo! BB" and massively invest in DSL technology to become in 2003 the largest DSL operator before the incumbent.

In March 2005, DSL had more than 13.6 million customers. The concurrence of FTTH is stronger and stronger, with the arrival of operators like TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), allied to KDDI and NTT. Three millions customers were wired with FTTH in March 2005 and it could supplant DSL in 2007 according to Yano Research ([FTTH Market in Japan and its future prospects], 1 September 2005).

The Japanese model of optic fiber deployment is difficult to compare to other markets. The last kilometre is often done in an aerial manner on pylons, shared between operators, even non-telco. This distribution technique reduce the vulnerability to earthquakes and lower costs dramatically.

The unique problem facing Japan's broadband situation is that because of popularity of FTTH, operators struggle to maitain enough bandwidth to let users enjoy their service fully. Even the largest operators have capacities for only tens of Gbits even though customers with FTTH service may number in thousands if not more. This problem is further compounded by limits caused by router.

(source: [French regulation authority letter])

Malaysia

As of June 2006 there are 580 thousand subscribers mainly ADSL connection. The main fixed broadband service provider is Telekom Malaysia and Jaring.

512 kbps Unlimited by Telekom RM 66 per month

1 Mbps RM 88 per month

Philippines

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Remove this template after relevant links have been added to the article. This article has been tagged since June 2006.

In the Philippines, broadband internet is usually available to consumers through 2 methods: cable and DSL. Cable Internet is offered through ZPDee Cable, Destiny Cable, Parasat Cable among others starting at 64 Kbps. PLDT, BayanTel, the Philippines' top 3 telephone operators offer DSL internet starting at 192 Kbps. Globe is sometimes very slow and many times below what can be called broadband. Broadband internet is also widely available at public internet cafes and offices, especially in major cities. Wireless (WiFi) broadband internet is progressively being rolled out in coffee houses, malls and major airports around the country. In the Philippines you don't get a dedicated line, at least not at Globe which split their lines between their customers, and that is the reason the speed is fare below what can be called broadband (Globeband). When measured at promos.mcafee.com/speedometer/test_0150.asp, the globelines "broadbandspeed" sometimes will be below 8.00 kbps, still their monthly bill is around 4.000 pesos.(No deduction!) Speed will usually increase during nigthtime when internet cafe's are closed, and may then, at best, reach speeds up to 7-800 kbps.

Qatar

ADSL launched 2002 in Qatar provided by Qtel with 25000 ADSL users [Ref]

Speeds:

Links: [Qtel Site] [Qatar Internet Site]

Oman

ADSL launched 2005 in Oman provided by Omantel and it's the only ISP here.

Speeds:

Monthly ADSL Line Rent = 12 R.O ($32) + 1 R.O ($2.6) per 1 GB down/upload.
Unlimited Down/upload = 12 R.O + 27 R.O = 39 R.O ($102) Monthly.
Monthly Unlimited Use = 20 R.O ($52). Monthly ADSL Line Rent = 120 R.O ($313) + 1 R.O ($2.6) per 1 GB down/upload. Links: [Omantel Website]

Saudi Arabia

ADSL service in Saudi Arabia has become available since 2001. As part of its monopoly on all methods of communication in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Telecom Company is the only complete provider, though several ISPs are available, with the permission of STC.

STC is highly criticized for providing slow and expensive ADSL services with poor reliability. 512 Kbps is currently the maximum internet speed that STC provides for home users. Customers are forced to pay outrageous fees to STC in addition to the payment provided to internet service providers. Also, STC has demonstrated a bad reliability of its DSL connections as these lines frequently get disconnected for maintenance and troubles.

Available ADSL speeds with typical monthly prices:

There are around 20 Internet Service Providers in Saudi Arabia, all of which are connected through one main provider of KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology). Some of the most popular ISPs are: There were several reasons for the service being unpopular, in particular the thought to be unreasonably expensive prices and alleged low-quality service. The service is becoming more popular as the service fees are being lowered.

Singapore

Singapore as a small densely populated island nation is the pioneer, and continues to be one of the few countries in the World in which broadband internet access is readily available to just about any would-be user anywhere in the country, with connectivity over 99%. In a government-led initiative to connect the island in a high-speed broadband network using various mediums such as fibre, DSL and cable, the Singapore ONE project was formally announced in June 1996, and commercially launched in June 1998. By December 1998, Singapore ONE is available nationwide with the completion of the national fibre optics network.

In 1997, commercial trials for Singapore Telecommunications' (Singtel) ADSL-based "SingTel Magix" service were undertaken in March, before being launched in June. Also in June, Singapore Cable Vision commenced trails for its cable modem based services, before being commercially deployed in December 1999. Singtel's ADSL service was subsequently rolled out on a nation-wide scale in August 2000.

In January 2001, the Broadband Media Association was formed to promote the broadband industry. By April the same year there were 6 broadband internet providers, with the total number of broadband users exceeding 300,000. Pacific Internet introduced wireless broadband services in October 2001.

ADSL providers in Singapore include:

South Korea

South Korea one of the highest penetration rates for broadband in the world (23.17 per 100 inhabitants at the end of December 2003). In January 2004, the total number of Internet users in Korea reached 28.6 million - 62% of the population. The vast majority of South Korean broadband users subscribe to ADSL, though cable modem usage has increased significantly since 2004.

South Korea leads the number of DSL connections per head world-wide. ADSL is standard, but VDSL has started growing quickly. ADSL commonly offers speeds of 2 Mbps to 8 Mbps, with VDSL accordingly faster. The large proportion of South Korea's population living in apartment blocks helps the spread of DSL, as does a high penetration of consumer electronics in general. VDSL is commonly found in newer apartments while ADSL is normally found in landed properties where the telephone exchange is far away. The Internet has a higher status for many Koreans than it does in the West, and the government actively supports this.

Sri Lanka

ADSL was introduced to Sri Lanka in 2003 by provider [Sri Lanka Telecom].

The average speed is 512/128 Kbps, costing Rs. 2250 per month for an unmetered flat rate. This is the standard for SLT and resellers. Faster connections up to 2 Mbps are available, but the price is considerably higher (Rs. 6500 for 2 Mbps).

The service is available with in the Greater Colombo area, Kandy and Galle.

Turkey

In Turkey ADSL service is provided since 2003 by Türk Telekom - () http://www.telekom.gov.tr. The current download/upload speed options are 256/64, 512/128, 1024/256, and 2048/512 Kbps. There are also options of 3, 6 and 9 GB download per-month limit for the speed of 512/128 Kbps.

Starting from 1 November 2005, Türk Telekom approximate prices (see http://www.turktelekom.com.tr/webtech/default.asp?sayfa_id=152) are as follows:

For the 3, 6 and 9 GB download per-month limits (at 512/128 Kbps speed) the approximate prices are: Notes: Other ADSL providers in Turkey are given below. They have similar prices and options, because they are using the POTS infrastructure of Türk Telekom:

Europe

Belgium

ADSL first appeared in Belgium in 1999, named Turboline. The first network was set up by Belgian telecom operator Belgacom and has been expanding ever since. In 2004 nearly 90% of the entire territory has access to ADSL from Belgacom. Belgacom daughter company Skynet was the first officially supported ADSL provider, but now many more have gained popularity. Download speed is usually capped around 4 Mbps, though faster services are now becoming available (including 9 Mbps VDSL from Skynet). Many ISPs, notably Skynet, have bandwidth caps in place to limit the amount of data users can transfer through their connection.

Alongside the Belgacom ADSL network, Scarlet has created a secondary network, with higher download and upload rates, sometimes up to the maximum 8 Mbps. Several providers use this network, like Scarlet and Adsl2Fit.

Belgium also has a cable network, started by Telenet in 1997 and covering almost all of Flanders. Speeds vary from 20 Mbps to 512 Kb/s down. It also has a monthly transfer limit.

Bulgaria

ADSL was introduced in Bulgaria after the privatization of the state monopoly BTC (Bulgarian Telecommunications Company) in 2004. Since then the availability has been widely increased and today (February 2006) it is offered in 140 towns and villages around the country. With the liberalization of the telecommunications market it is expected that other companies currently offering broadband Internet by other means will begin offering ADSL in the near future. The BTC price of the most popular packages as of February 2006 is as follows:

A map of the service areas can be seen at: http://www.telecom.bg/en/residential_details.php?sel=0&cat=25 (flash required)

Czech Republic

In Czech Republic, ADSL became commercially available at the beginning of 2003 by then-monopoly operator Cesky Telecom with basic speeds from 192/64 Kbps to 1024/256 Kbps. Because of low cable penetration and low WiFi penetration, it became a quick success even with high prices (~€350 per month for 1024/256 kbit). At the beginning of 2004, local loop unbundling began, and alternative operator Telenor offered ADSL (and also SDSL) via its network with speeds up to 4096/384 Kbps. This, and later privatisation of Cesky Telecom helped drive down prices.

As of January 2006, ADSL is offered in many variants, both with data limit and without with speeds up to 4096/384 Kbps. Some operators started offering ADSL2 technology via LLU (although on ADSL1 speeds) at the end of 2005, with Czech Telecom planning full speed ADSL2(+) later this year.

The typical ADSL connection in Czech Republic is 512/128 Kbps with a data limit of 3 - 10 GB. Speeds, data limits, Fair User Policy (limiting link speed based on amount of transferred data) and overbooking vary per each ISP, but basically, settings offered are:

Cesky Telecom Network

Telenor Network 
Distance (CTc operator):


from 3/2005:
to 2400 m - max. full speed 4096 Kbps
to 3400 m - max. 2048/256 Kbps
to 6500 m - max. 1024/256 Kbps
to 7300 m - max. 512/128 Kbps
to 8200 m - max. 256/64 Kbps


to 3/2005:
256/64 Kbps to max 3,8 km
512/128 Kbps to 3,4 km,
1024/256 Kbps to 3 km.

Denmark

ADSL was introduced commercially to Denmark in winter 1999. The service has been rolled out very extensively and the national coverage is now above 97% of the Danish population. There are several ISPs in Denmark but only a few own their own infrastructure (The 'last mile' is owned solely by TDC), namely TDC, Cybercity and to some extent Tele2 (who acquired there xDSL infrastructure from Tiscali in February 2005.

More information can be found here (in order of market share):

Finland

First ADSL line providers started in 2000. A typical ADSL connection in Finland is 512/512 Kbps or 1024/512 Kbps and it costs €20 to €30 per month.

Some ADSL Line Providers:

In the city of Oulu, Oulun Puhelin Plc (OPOY) has for a longer time offered full-rate ADSL (8/1 Mbps) and VDSL (10/10 Mbps, actually Cisco Long Reach Ethernet).

With aggressive marketing, Saunalahti brought full-rate ADSL (8/1 Mbps) to the capital area and Turku on 2004-08-03. Saunalahti announced ADSL2 services (12 Mbps) on 2004-10-21, available in the capital area and Turku. Saunalahti also announced the first ever ADSL2+ services (24 Mbps) in Nordic countries on 2004-11-15, first available only in the Tampere region.

France

In metropolitan France, intense competition between Internet service providers has led to the introduction of moderately-priced high speed ADSL up to 20 Mbps for 30€ per month, often including other services such as unlimited free VoIP telephone communications to land lines, and digital television. Conventional dial-up Internet is increasingly considered as outdated.

zones covered by a DSL service provider in France at the end of September 2005
Enlarge
zones covered by a DSL service provider in France at the end of September 2005

Lines

On the 31st March 2006, France had 10.5 million broadband connections, of which 94% are ADSL subscribers, a 3.2 million lines or 43% increase from a year before, [Arcep, 31 May 2006] This makes France the second largest ADSL market in Europe. At the end of 2005, 30% of those DSL lines were unbundled, and 21% of those unbundled lines were totally unbundled without any direct invoicing of the historical operator and a greater progression rate than partial unbundling according to the regulation authority, the ARCEP, in its [2005 broadband reports]. At the end of September 2005, more than 95% of the population can have a DSL connection, albeit some of them only 512/128.

Furthermore, actual Internet transfer rates may stay far behind the advertised DSL connection speed, depending on the subscriber's home distance to the DSLAM. While a connection of 20 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload may give transfer rates of only roughly 2 Mbps (200 kB/s) or less download and 500 Kbps (50 kB/s) upload (to various servers in France, Germany and USA, academic and hosting services), other people have no problem reaching the advertised speed.

Market

Wanadoo, now known in France as Orange SA, a subsidiary of France Telecom, is the leader with half of the market with 49.5%, helped by the reputation and availability of physical shops of the incumbent operator to overcome slightly higher prices because of its obligation of using fixed prices. Other operators shares the rest, with the first being Free (subsidiary of Iliad) with 17.9% of the market, just above Neuf Telecom (Louis Dreyfus Group) which merged his ADSL activities with Cegetel (Vivendi Universal) with 13.2% according to Iliad in its [fiscal year 2005 presentation]. Then came the other operators: Alice (Telecom Italia) which bought Tiscali, for 6.1%, Club internet (Deutsche Telekom) for 4.4%, AOL, Tele2, and small operators, frequently virtual. The trend is a slow augmentation for the challengers at the expense of Wanadoo.

Offers

The market is oriented towards stopping the price war, and offering more services at a price around 30€, slightly more for the incumbent operator:

Those triple play offers were initiated by Free with the Freebox modem, and are expanding to all major players, driving the French market as noted by [BusinessWeek] the 5 December 2005.

First prices between 15€ and 20€ per month remain for a small usage with limited throughput around one megabit per second (but often ADSL2 max in unbundled zones). Those prices can also be attained with complete unbundling, saving the monthly 15€ for the POTS subscription while retaining the triple play services.

Technology

After selling the first ADSL2+ offers in Europe, providing a speed of 18 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up in 2004, French operators continue to offer new services, driven by the competition. It is possible to use video telephony, video on demand, Reach Extended ADSL for 8 km lines soon. Experiments aren't any more the Iliad/Free trademark: they recently demonstrated an aggregated [174 Mbps link], while Telecom Italia innovates on the service with a free hotline and France Telecom is pushing VDSL.

In December 2005, Free enabled a TV multicasting service on the customer's local network, an open solution based on RTSP ([2005-12-01 announce]). This completes the [media center capability] of the freebox, also using the VideoLAN project. They launched on [19 april 2006] a new Freebox divided in two devices with DVB-T and HDTV capabilities and a Mimo WiFi network.

Quadruple play, triple play with mobile communications, is available: neuf cegetel is selling for 200€ and 1€ with a plan [Twin], a GSM/WiFi hybrid telephone after the experimental [beautifulphone], by the means of a QTek 8300 and Wanadoo sells [Unik], a Motorola, Nokia et Samsung handset for 100€. Free develops a wifi mesh network of HD freeboxes to be used to provide mobile telephony and compete with traditional cellular operators.

Germany

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DSL Providers

As of first quarter of 2005, Deutsche Telekom has approximately 6.4 million DSL customers in Germany (called T-DSL), making Germany one of the top DSL countries. T-DSL has a number of resellers, and many ISPs providing service for it. Alternatively, there are DSL providers in Germany which have their own DSL network and only rent the copper lines, e.g. Arcor, QSC, AliceDSL and Telefonica.

Deutsche Telekom offers T-DSL:

A telephone contract with Deutsche Telekom (16€ analogue, 25€ ISDN) is required.

Major resellers of T-DSL are T-Online and 1&1, and all have identical prices for T-DSL so far.

These prices do not include ISP fees, which are typically an additional €5-10 (flatrate, all speeds) and vary, also depending on location. Such ISPs include T-Online, Congster (both Deutsche Telekom), 1&1 and GMX (both United Internet), all of which use/resell the T-Com IP backbone (though 1&1 has been using Telefónica's network for their 16 Mbps service).

Actual Internet transfer rates via the T-Com IP backbone are typically close to the maximum of the DSL connection speed, including connections to the USA (as long as the actual server permits it, of course).

Arcor offers 2048/192 (€15), 6144/640 (€20), 16128/800 (€23). These prices already include the ISP flatrate, but require a telephone contract with Arcor.

Telefonica has its own DSL infrastructure with 40% coverage based on line sharing and its own backbone, formerly MediaWays. It is used in part by AOL (4th with 1 million customers) and Freenet, but Telefonica itself does not sell to endusers in Germany. AOL uses T-DSL where Telefonica has no coverage.

QSC offers Q-DSL home with 1,5 or 2,5 Mbps combined download and upload speed, and the customer chooses how much of it is upload. Prices are 30 and 40 €/month, respectively, plus activation fee.

Deutsche Telekom/T-Com is building a VDSL network in summer 2006, but there is political quarrel, because they demand exemption from regulation, which the current German government wants to allow, but the EU does not accept. It is supposed to offer up to 50 Mbps download, 10 Mbps speeds and intended to be used with proprietory digital TV offers, including live football games (Bundesliga).

The market is very much in movement, prices dropping and new technologies emerging rapidly, but some offers have very long contract terms of 1 or 2 years.

Coverage is not very good, many towns with a few thousand people have no DSL offers.

Alternative technologies

Connection technologies other than DSL are not widely used in Germany so far, due to a lack of viable offers, but are starting to get interesting.

Until recently, Cable Internet was not available, because the cable TV infrastructure was owned by Deutsche Telekom, which pushed DSL and neglected the cable network. It was sold after political pressure a few years ago, now owned by Kabel Deutschland, Kabel BW, ish etc. (separated geographically), which slowly invest into upgrading the cable network's bandwidth/capacity and making it 2-way-capable. Kabel Deutschland offers 2 Mbps for 30€/month (and higher speeds at higher prices) on top of the cable TV fee.

Satellite links can be used by those who are not covered by DSL or other technologies. It is called e.g. T-DSL Satellite or skyDSL, which are one-way links based on DVB-S and require an uplink via dialup, which often has to be paid by minute. Some offers with two-way satelite connections exist for consumers. Satellite inherently has high latency, and is thus second choice for most people.

UMTS is becoming an interesting alternative where available, at speeds of up to 384 Kbps download and 64 Kbps upload, particularly since E-Plus/Base offers a true mobile flatrate for roughly 50€/month. O2 has an offer based on UMTS/GSM, but limited to the home, called Genion Homezone. The big mobile providers T-Mobile and Vodafone now offer tariffs with 5 Gbyte/month of data transfer included, with the advantage of HSDPA (up to 1,8 Mbps download) availability on all UMTS nodes.

Greece

ADSL appeared commercially in Greece in 2003, and is currently the only broadband standard that exists in the country except for Satellite Internet.

The incumbent telecom operator, OTE, which was not the first operator to launch ADSL services in the country, has been accused of deliberately stalling ADSL deployment for three years, in order to continue charging users with high per-minute dial-up charges for as long as possible (flat-rate dial-up connections do not exist in Greece). OTE has also been criticized for artificially limiting the number of packets passing per second through a given ADSL connection, thus making VoIP services over its broadband network unusable and unreliable.

Typical download/upload speeds available over OTE's network (in Kbps) are 384/128, 512/128 and 1024/256 Kbps. These speeds are going to be doubled by the end of September 2006. Faster data rates (up to 12/1 Mbps) are provided by other telecom operators thanks to the Local Loop Unboundling (LLU). 


ADSL Line Providers in Greece:









Main ADSL Internet Providers (ISPs) throught OTE's network:




There are also some smaller ISPs providing ADSL.



Approximate Prices for unlimited use:


OTE+ISP -  512/128 Kbps ~ 30 €/mth


OTE+ISP - 1024/256 Kbps ~ 40 €/mth


Vivodi - 1024/256 Kbps ~ 35 €/mth


Vivodi - 2048/640 Kbps ~ 65 €/mth


Tellas - 2048/512 Kbps ~ 45 €/mth


Vivodi - 4096/640 Kbps ~ 200 €/mth


HOL - 4/1 Mbps ~ 142€ for 8 months



[All you need to know about ADSL in Greece]



Hungary

ADSL appeared in Hungary in 2001, and ADSL2+ in late 2005.
The main providers are: T-Com (formerly Matáv), Invitel, Emitel, Monortel, Pantel, TVNet
Approximate prices:
Starting from June 2006 there will be 2 new offering: 12 and 18 Mbps from T-Com based on ADSL2+



Ireland


In Ireland, Eircom began rolling out Broadband in 2002. This continued slowly until last year when the rollout became much more aggressive. As more and more competition has appeared so have the prices dropped. Local loop unbundling (LLU) is now starting to move with companies like Magnet Networks and Smart Telecom offering unbundled services. As in many other countries, localities in rural Ireland are unable to get DSL. This does not look like changing in the immediate future. Satellite broadband is the only choice for some people. The government-sponsored Group Broadband Schemes have helped some local communities set up their own internet networks whether with wireless or other technologies.


Broadband is now available in areas near DSL-enabled exchanges from several companies other than Eircom. These include Esat BT, Smart Telecom, Clearwire, Magnet Networks and UTV Internet. Several wireless services such as Irish Broadband and DigiWeb also exist in metropolitan areas.


ADSL appeared in Ireland in 2002. By December 2005 around 70% of all homes could get ADSL. By April 2006 90% of households will be broadband capable, according to Eircom, the largest Broadband provider in the Republic of Ireland. These figures are the source of much debate in Ireland.





Italy


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ADSL has in theory been available in Italy for a number of years, and has been very widely publicised; but in practice has to now (Sept 2004) been limited by an apparently low technical competence of the telecoms companies, which consumers continue to tolerate. Consumer expectations are heavily conditioned by decades of poor service, delays, random cuts and the alleged technical and commercial ineptitude that was typical of the entire communications sector, a state monopoly until very recently.


Recent liberalisation of the market has brought much hype and little change. The local loop is still in the hands of the old monopolist, whose ingrained corporate culture does not favour the consumer. The general corporate trend to outsource technical assistance to untrained operators in third-party call centres does little to mitigate a very sorry state of affairs. The old monopolist limits the amount of bandwidth it sells to competitors, which are forced to heavily oversubscribe users to limited backbone. Some companies have started installing their own DSLAMs, and offering fast connection at competitive prices, but these services aren't available in many areas. A cable operator, Fastweb, has started a 10 Mbps Fiber Optic service, with VoIP, at about 90 Euros/month but as they started building their network from scratch in recent years it is only available in major cities. One common criticism is that they connect their users to a metropolitan area network and not directly to the internet, so users are behind NAT servers. Satellite internet remains very expensive, starting from about 150 Euros/month



Latvia

ADSL services in Latvia are provided by Lattelekom. Majas DSL, service for home users, is very popular. It's speed is 512/128 Kbps and a ADSL2+ version with a speed of 10 Mbps. Both cost the same.



Lithuania

ADSL carrier services in Lithuania are provided by monopoly Teo LT. In the future this service might be used by other ISPs for their retail services.
[Find more about "Zebra DSL"]



Netherlands

Five ADSL networks are currently active in The Netherlands; two networks set up by KPN(namely MXstream and Bitstream), the former state telecom operator, and three others run by BBned (a subsidiary of Telecom Italia), Tiscali Wholesale and Versatel. At the moment ISP Wanadoo (a subsidiary of France Telecom) is also setting up its own network. Versatel was bought by Tele2, a Swedish competitive telecom operator. The KPN network has nearly 100% coverage and other networks have roughly 70% coverage. Several line speeds are available, depending on the internet provider. KPN has four ISP companies, KPN direct, HetNet, Planet and XS4all. HetNet and Planet used to be separate companies, but they were bought by and integrated into KPN and are now only brand names. The last being XS4all is owned but not run by KPN. XS4all is used by KPN as main innovator and for that reason reserved the right to run it's own affairs.
KPN has in recent years acquired several other ISP's. None of their brand names were adopted by KPN and ceased to exist. These include Freeler.
Since XS4all is left to run its own affairs, but does count as KPN provider, KPN has acquired even more customers by XS4all taking over ISP's as well. These include Cistron, HCCnet and most recently the dutch branch of Demon internet.


Typical download/upload speeds of the KPN network:




Lower speeds (e.g. 375/128 and 750/128 Kbps) are also available.


Alcatel is currently replacing KPN's existing ADSL equipment with new ADSL2+ equipment. The replacement will be completed in the first quarter of 2006, when KPN will also begin to offer VoIP. For VoIP, costumers will need a new modem (Experiabox===Siemens Gigaset SE551 ADSL2+ router with four ethernet ports, WiFi and two telephone ports). Later in 2006 KPN will also offer IPTV. This move of KPN is a direct result of the VoIP services offered by other ADSL network operators and cable companies (90% of Dutch households have a cable connection).


For other ADSL networks prices tend to be lower and speeds higher. E.g. Versatel offers 20000/1024 Kbps with telephony (VoIP) and live soccer games of the Dutch competition (IPTV) for €59.95 and Wanadoo offers 20000/1024 Kbps for €23.95.



Malta


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Commercial availability of broadband internet, namely through ADSL and cable, has existed since 2000, and is accessible from all areas of the island. As of 2005, ADSL is offered at speeds of 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps download, and 256 Kbps and 512 Kbps upload. From 9th June maltanet has upgraded all the 2 Mbps customers to 4 Mbps connections. All local ISPs offer these speeds, at varying prices. ADSL bandwidth is received through the Seabone Network and operated by DataStream and Vodafone Malta plc. (which are not ISPs). The bandwidth is then sold to the various ISPs which in turn sell it to customers. As of December 2005, DataStream merged with the ISP maltanet, giving maltanet a competitive edge over other ISPs - both DataStream and maltanet are subsidiaries of the national telephone company, Maltacom.


Cable internet is offered by only one ISP, OnVOL, with speeds available at 2 Mbps and 4 Mbps download, and 256 Kbps and 512 Kbps upload. OnVOL is a subsidiary of the cable and digital television provider, Melita Cable. The 4 Mbps speed offered by OnVOL via cable is the fastest current connection available for the residential user in Malta. OnVOL also offer the standard ADSL connection as mentioned above, however this is not advertised and apparently only available for businesses.


Broadband connectivity has become very widespread on the island, with many households opting for a broadband connection. Prices vary slightly between ISPs, however, 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps ADSL connections, and 2 Mbps and 4 Mbps cable connections are all very reasonably priced, and therefore affordable to the majority of the population. This is largely due to competition between ISPs, and also special connection plans, targeted towards the household user.



Norway

ADSL became available to private consumers around late 2000.


Depending on the provider, offered speeds range from 704/128 Kbps to as high as 8/1 Mbps for ADSL, while ADSL2+ is slowly becoming available with speeds reaching up to 26/1.5 Mbps.


Prices vary constantly due to fierce competition between providers, but prices can be found as low as 195 NOK (US$30) per month for the most basic ADSL connections, while ADSL2+ is somewhat pricier, it starts at around 550 NOK (US$82) per month. This is in addition to DSL equipment rental and installation fees.


Some major ISPs that provide DSL services in Norway:


There is also a flurry of local providers all over the country that offer competitive DSL services.


As of the time this is written (January 2006), all known services include unlimited download. (i.e no capping)


External links



Poland

The most popular ADSL services for home users in Poland are Neostrada provided by TPSA, and Net24 provided by Netia. Business users as well as some home users use Internet DSL TP also offered by TPSA. According to Eurostat, OECD and others internet in Poland is the most expensive in Europe. This is mostly caused by the lack of competitiveness. Luckily new operators like Dialog and GTS Energis are making the own provider lines and offer more attractive and cheaper service. Recently the Polish Office of Electronical Communication passed a bill forcing the TPSA to rent 51% of their ADSL lines to other ISPs for 50% lower prices. This move will definitely affect the prices of DSL in Poland


Neostrada


At present Neostrada has six possible price, speed and download limit variants (as of May 2006):


Prices and speed for 12 month contract (excluding tax):




Prices and speed for 24 month contract (excluding tax):




Prices and speed for unlimited period of time (excluding tax):




After exceeding the data transfer limit, download speeds fall to 32 Kbps until the end of month on all options.


One can buy an additional 2 GB of transfer by calling a premium-rate number or buying a special card with a code. It costs €2.5 and does not affect base line speed.


Some users also have older (offered until September 2004) no longer available options of 640/160 Kbps with no download limit for €33.


Internet DSL TP


There is another ADSL option available, targeted mainly at business clients, called Internet DSL TP. This does not impose any download limits, the link availability is guaranteed plus offers static IP address(es) and a modem with Ethernet interface. Of course, it is more expensive than Neostrada (all prices excluding tax, as of May 2006):




The main drawback of this service is that, excluding times of promotional fares, the installation cost is very high: €209. However, monthly fares are now quite close to similar Neostrada speed options.


Net24


ADSL service called Net24, provided by TP's main competitor Netia, offers four speed options: (As for July 2006)





(prices excluding tax)


The physical speeds are slightly higher than marketed speeds to accommodate protocol overhead. The IP address is assigned dynamically on connection.


There is download restriction all options. Users who download more than 40 gigabytes of data each month, three months in a row may suffer from reduced download speed. 
The service can be installed on ISDN lines.


Netia also offers ADSL (BiznesNet24) and SDSL (SuperNet24) subscriptions for business customers which offer static IP address and higher speeds.


DialNET DSL


ADSL service called DialNET DSL, provided by Dialog. There is now download limits which makes it much better than TPSA's Neostrada


Prices and speed for 12 month contract (including tax):


Prices and speed for unlimited time contract (including tax):

External links


Portugal

ADSL service has been available to the general public in Portugal since 2000, however it wasn't until 2002, due to increased market competition and lower overall prices, that the service started to become appealing to consummers when compared to other available technologies. The main telephone companies have since started to market packages that combine the traditional voice service and ADSL service. These packages are becoming increasingly popular and are usually available from each company in the areas where they provide direct service.


The top ADSL ISPs in Portugal are:


Portugal Telecom


A former monopoly, [Portugal Telecom] is still the largest telecommunications company in the country today. Due to their previous monopoly status their landline infrastructure covers 100% of the national territory, making them the only operator that can offer direct service anywhere in the country. Portugal Telecom uses two brands to segment their ADSL service: [SAPO] for the residential market and [Telepac] for the business market.


Prices for SAPO ADSL service:




SonaeCom


[SonaeCom] started operations in 1999, soon after the government opened the telecommunications market to competition. SonaeCom started by renting Portugal Telecom's lines in order to offer their voice service to customers, but later started laying their own infrastructure and can now offer direct service in the main metropolitan areas.

When implementing their own network, SonaeCom invested in the newer ADSL2+ technology and is at this time the only ISP in the country with an ADSL2+ offer to the general public, which is available wherever they provide direct service. Taking advantage of the increased bandwidth provided by their ADSL2+ network, in 2006 SonaeCom launched an IPTV service called [SmarTV] which is available to their ADSL2+ customers. With this move, SonaeCom can now offer phone, internet and TV services over a single line to their customers, competing now with the cable operators as well.


Prices for Clix ADSL packages:





Romania


In Romania, broadband internet has been available since 2000, through coaxial cable, first from Kappa (now defunct) and currently from Astral Romania, RDS and UPC. Currently speeds range between 384 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps (both upstream and downstream) for household targeted plans and cost between USD 9 and USD 30 per month, depending on the bandwidth provided.


However, the most popular broadband services are provided by micro-ISPs (known locally as "reţea de bloc/reţea de cartier" (block/neighborhood LAN) with between 50 and 2000 customers each. These ISPs usually provide their services through 100BASE-T UTP LANs, with a number of particularities and peculiarities : most were grassroot organizations and still have a feeling of community between subscribers and the management, speeds are usually divided in three categories : "LAN", "Metropolitan" and "International" with Metropolitan meaning a limited number of networks with which the micro-ISP has a peering agreement and sometimes the cable internet providers (as there is no national Internet exchange, a lot of metropolitan traffic in Romania is routed through Hungary or Germany). Generally, for such broadband connections, speeds are 100 Mbps locally, 1-10 Mbps metro and 128-512 Kbps International. Costs range from between 25 Lei (USD 8.5) and 700 Lei (USD 235). Some of these micro-ISP function completely legally, while others (generally the smaller ones) are organized informally in something like a permanent LAN party. Many of these micro-ISPs formed organizations to represent their common interests and provide for integration of services (one such organization is Interlan, covering the whole of Bucharest).


DSL has been a very recent addition, on an almost saturated market (Romtelecom began offering the service in late 2005 in a small number of large cities), and is not a popular means of connection, as it's both perceived as small and expensive (1 Mbps downstream, 256 Kbps upstream is offered for Euro 35 / USD 42).


For business use, services are usually provided through fiber optics or radio. Companies providing such services (Astral, RDS, Evolva, Mediasat, UPC, Euroweb, Fibernet, Intrabit) are providing very flexible and negotiable plans also based on the Metropolitan/International distinction. Usually prices and bandwidths are fully negotiable as their main clients are the micro-ISPs discussed above. There is very strong competition, with no peering between many such companies (again requiring a lot of traffic to be routed through Hungary) and not even access to another's fiber-optics infrastructure (leading to the existence, in some cases, of over 25 fiber optics cables on the same street, hanging from the same pole). As such many companies have two separate providers for basically the same services.


DSL in Romania is provided by Romtelecom and a small number of Romtelecom licensees using it's infrastructure. DSL is very unpopular in Romania, because of very late introduction (in 2005), the wide availability and high penetration of cable and LAN networks (available since 2000), the very high prices (about twice higher than cable competitors) and limited availability. As such, prices valid for 2006 (normal, non-promotional prices) are as following (add 4 € / month for modem rental):





Slovenia


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Slovenian ISP's provide ADSL,VDSL and ADSL2+.

There are no download limits on any of package and no fair-use policy.


Companies:

SiOL

ADSL




Amis

ADSL



Voljatel

ADSL



ADSL2+ (available after 1.4.2006)



T-2

VDSL


Optical fibers





Spain

ADSL arrived in Spain in 1999. The main ISPs are:




The average speed is 1024/300 Kbps, costing €20 to €39 per month for an unmetered line. This is the standard for telefonica and resellers. Faster connections up to 8 Mbps are available, but the price is considerably higher (€150 for 8 Mpbs).


Leading ISPs offer ADSL2/ADSL2+ connections from 8 to 20 Mbps of download and 512 to 1024 Kbps of upload. These include [Jazztel], [Ya.com], [Wanadoo] and others. While not covering 100% of the territory, it reaches more than 33% of the population. Prices average €25 depending on the bundle.


Telefonica, Jazztel, and Wanadoo all provide DSL based television services (Imagenio, Jazztelia TV and Wanadoo TV respectively).



Sweden


In Sweden household broadband is mainly available through cable (in speeds of 128 Kbps to 8 Mbps) and ADSL (256 Kbps to 24 Mbps), but in many places also through copper Ethernet LAN networked via fibre MANs connecting buildings. Symmetric broadband Internet access of 100 Mbps is available for USD 40 a month, as of October 2005. In Lund, one service offers 1 Gbit/s connections.


ADSL competition has been low in Sweden, mainly due to the fact that nearly all POTS copper is owned by Skanova (a part of TeliaSonera), who have made it difficult and expensive for third parties to gain access to the telephone stations. Nearly all ADSL provided today is through the "Skanova broadband platform", while other actors who have earlier tried to supply ADSL independently have gone over to Skanova (Bonet/Bostream), or gone bankrupt (Xpress ADSL).



Speed:
Cost:

Market:


Switzerland

In Switzerland, approximately two thirds of home broadband subscriptions are via ADSL, with the remaining third using Cable [link]. Other xDSL technologies, satellite access and fiber channels are available, but are generally used by businesses due to their cost.


The typical home ADSL user has three speed choices [link]:




The above prices are examples from Bluewin, the leading Swiss ISP, as of May 2006.


There are usually no overages for traffic, as there is for the most part no monthly traffic limit. There is the occasional sign-up cost, which can cost up to CHF 100.-. Upon signing up with an ISP, one can choose to buy an analogue or ISDN ADSL modem, which can cost from CHF 50.- to 200.- depending on its' features. One can also ask a technician to install the material on-site, for approximately CHF 150.-.


Business ADSL offers are similar in speed to home offers. The following is Bluewin's fastest offer as of April 2006 [link]:


Typical added business services include priority over other traffic, thereby ensuring full speed, a hardware firewall solution to improve network security, and priority technical support.


ADSL providers in Switzerland and their websites:


The Swiss ADSL infrastructure is owned by Swisscom, the (DSLAM hardware and software is provided by Alcatel.



United Kingdom


ADSL was introduced to the UK in trial stages in the late 1990's and a commercial product was launched in 2000. In the United Kingdom, most exchanges, local loops and backhauls are owned and managed by BT Wholesale, who then sell on connectivity to ISPs, who provide the actual connectivity with the Internet (in most cases), telephone support, billing and added features. BT currently operate 5591 exchanges all over the UK with the vast majority being enabled for ADSL. Only a relative handful have not been upgraded to support ADSL products - infact it is under 100 of the smallest and most rural exchanges. Some exchanges, numbering under 1000, have been upgraded to support SDSL products. However, these exchanges are often the larger exchanges based in major towns and cities so they still cover a large proportion of the population. SDSL products are aimed more at business customers and are priced higher than ADSL services.


The ADSL packages available from BT Wholesale are known as IPStream Home 250, Home 500, Home 1000 and Home 2000 (contention ratio of 50:1); and Office 500, Office 1000, and Office 2000 (contention ratio of 20:1). The number in the product name indicates the downstream data rate in kilobits per second. The upstream data rate is up to 250 Kbps for all products.


For BT Wholesale ADSL products, users initially had to live within 3.5 kilometers of the local telephone exchange to receive ADSL, but this limit was increased thanks to RADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line), although users with RADSL may have a reduced upstream rate, depending on the quality of their line. There are still areas that cannot receive ADSL because of technical limitations, not least of which networks in housing areas built with aluminium cable rather than copper in the 1980s and 1990s, and areas served by optical fibre (TPON), though these are slowly being serviced with copper.


In September 2004, BT Wholesale removed the line length / loss limits for 500 Kbps ADSL, instead employing a tactic of "suck it and see" — enabling the line, then seeing if ADSL would work on it. This sometimes includes the installation of a filtered faceplate on the customer's master socket, so as to eliminate poor quality telephone extension cables inside the customer's premises which can be a source of high frequency noise.


In the past, the majority of home users used packages with 500 Kbps (downstream) and 250 Kbps (upstream) with a 50:1 contention ratio, typically costing between £20 and £30 per month. However BT Wholesale introduced the option of a new charging structure to ISPs which means that the wholesale service cost was the same regardless of the ADSL data rate, with charges instead being based on the amount of data transferred. Nowadays, most home users use a package whose data rate is only limited by the technical limitations of their telephone line. Most home products today (2 Mbps downstream) will fall in the £20-30 per month price range.


There is currently a trial in place for new services to be called "IPStream Max", which offer users higher download and upload speeds, with varying speeds based upon the capabilities of their lines.


On 31 March 2006, BT Wholesale should be making the new "IPStream Max" products generally available across most exchanges. The two new products will be "IPStream Max" and "IPStream Max Premium". Both services offers downstream data rates of up to 7.4 Mbps. Upstream data rates are up to 400 Kbps for the standard product and up to 800 Kbps for the premium product. (Whilst the maximum downstream data rate for IPStream Max is often touted as 8 Mbps, this is in fact misleading because, in a departure from previous practice, it actually refers to the gross ATM data rate. The maximum data rata available at the IP level is 7.4 Mbps; the maximum TCP payload rate — the rate you would actually see for file transfer — would be 7.2 Mbps.)


Contention ratios are no longer officially stated either, except that the Office products will generally see a reduced level of contention to their Home counterparts. This is the product of amalgamating Home and Office users onto a single consolidated, but larger, virtual path.


Several companies are also operating their own services using unbundled local loops, notably Bulldog Communications in the London area, and Easynet, through their consumer sister company UK Online, who have enabled exchanges all across the country, from London to Central Scotland. As such, packages are available with typical speeds of 4 Mbps, 8 Mbps or up to 24 Mbps downstream in certain areas. Because these companies do not have to conform to the same regulatory conditions as BT, they can offer products at sometimes considerably lower prices — UK Online recently announced a 512 Kbps product for £9.99 per month. Another company, Be*, is offering speeds of up to [24 Mbps downstream], using ADSL2+ but this is only available on a small number of exchanges mostly in the London are. New exchanges are being upgraded by these companies every day, increasing speeds across the country. Again these products are often priced in the £20-30 per month range.


Major resources for UK broadband information are [ADSLGuide] and [Broadband Zilla].


On August 13, 2004 the ISP Wanadoo (formerly Freeserve and now Orange SA in the UK) were told by the Advertising Standards Authority to change the way that they advertised their 512 Kbps broadband service in Britain, removing the words "full speed" which rival companies claimed was misleading people into thinking it was the fastest available service. In a similar way, on April 9, 2003 the Advertising Standards Authority ruled against ISP NTL, saying that NTL's 128 Kbps cable modem service must not be marketed as "broadband". Ofcom reported in June 2005 that there were more broadband than dial-up connections for the first time in history.[link]. In the third quarter of 2005 with the merger of NTL and Telewest, a new alliance was formed to create the largest market share of broadband users. This alliance brought about huge increases in bandwidth allocations for customers (minimum speed increasing from the industry norm of 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps home lines with both companies planning to have all domestic customers upgraded to at least 4 Mbps downstream and ranging up to 10 Mbps and beyond by mid-2006.) along with the supply of integrated services such as Digital TV and Phone packages.
8 Mbps[link] enabled exchanges have begun appearing in larger cities, with British Telecom announcing[link] that more than 5300 exchanges will be upgraded to allow 99.6% of homes in the UK access to the higher speeds.


See also May 2004 New Statesman supplement [link] on broadband.


Since 2003 BT has been introducing SDSL to exchanges in many of the major cities. Services are currently offered at upload/download speeds of 256 Kbps, 512 Kbps, 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps. Unlike ADSL, which is typically 256 Kbps upload, SDSL upload speeds are the same as the download speed. BT usually provide a new copper pair for SDSL installs, which can be used only for the SDSL connection. At a few hundred pounds a quarter, SDSL is significantly more expensive than ADSL, but is significantly cheaper than a leased line. SDSL is marketed to businesses and offers low contention ratios, and in some cases, a Service Level Agreement. At present, the BT Wholesale SDSL enablement programme has stalled, most probably due to a lack of uptake.


As of May 2006, Bulldog were heavily advertising their ADSL offer of a 16 Mbps downlink for an "initial" £9.95/month.


External links



Oceania


Australia


In Australia the major telephone company Telstra owns the majority of the infrastructure and is the main provider of DSL at 1.5 Mbps. Competitors resell this, and some provide other options - such as their own DSL networks over Telstra copper wiring with speeds up to 24 Mbps, a cable network at 10 Mbps, business fibre in city centres, and various wireless choices (these are all predominantly in large cities).


Like many ISPs around the world, the majority of Australian ISPs traffic shape residential customers after a monthly download quota has been exceeded.



Common Telstra DSL


ADSL became available in 2000 and Telstra limits ADSL speeds to 1.5 Mbps downstream / 256 Kbps upstream, and also sells slower speeds of 256 Kbps/64 Kbps and 512 Kbps/128 Kbps. SDSL services at 256/256 and 512/512 are available but cost a little more.


Telstra is now legally required to sell its ADSL service wholesale to other ISPs. Until early 2002, Telstra's retail branch BigPond was the only reseller. Since then, the main ISPs to resell Telstra's ADSL include:

(source The Australian, early March 06, cited in [link])


Telstra has been criticised for limiting their ADSL DSLAM download speed to a maximum of 1.5 Mbps (and 256 Kbps upload), whereas the maximum ADSL speed possible is 8 Mbps download (1 Mbps upload), and ADSL2+ allows 24 Mbps downloads. They say they limit their speed to 1.5 Mbps as they want to ensure everybody can get the same speed of service, though others claim they limit their DSLAM speed is so as to not kill off its own high speed data services which charge expensive premiums for 2 Mbps speeds.



Faster broadband


Faster broadband speeds are available in Australia. Telstra & Optus both own separate cable networks capable of higher speeds (Telstra 17 Mbps, Optus 10 Mbps), though the network is limited and covers only parts of a few major cities (these are not sold wholesale). The government has regulated access for competitors to Telstra's exchanges and their copper phone lines (local loop unbundling), and several ISPs have installed their own hardware DSLams - and now offer broadband speeds up to 24 Mbps.


ISPs who are installing their own DSLAMs include iiNet, Internode, TPG Internet, OptusNet, Primus, Powertel & Adam Internet. Most offer ADSL2+ (with speeds up to 24 Mbps), though in 2006 some still provide ADSL1 (with speeds up to 8 Mbps). Only Optus, Primus, & Powertel offer their own standard telephony services over these lines, other ISPs resell Telstra's phone services alongside their own ADSL or do not bundle phone services.


In 2005, Telstra announced [link] it would invest AUD $210 million in upgrading all their ADSL exchanges to support ADSL2+ by mid 2006, though they did not say whether they would continue to restrict access speeds. However, in 2006, they announced new intentions to substantially alter their copper phone network and setup a "Fibre to the Node (FTTN)" network, which they say will provide 12 Mbps speeds to 98% of the metropolitan areas. It is asking the government for their competitors' customers be moved back to Telstra hardware in 60% of cases (those customers >1.5 km from a local exchange) as part of building this - and they will sell wholesale access to them. Telstra's competitors do not wish to move their customers back to a Telstra network, and argue that it is unnecessary - an ADSL2+ network (such as iiNet's in Sydney [link]) provides 75% of its users more than 10 Mbps today.



Other developments.


There are ongoing developments in Australia. This includes fibre networks offered by Telstra and competitors in major cities (eg: east-coast capitals by Powertel, and mid to west-coast capitals by Amcom). Three phone networks provide 3G data connectivity, Telstra via EVDO, and Optus and Vodafone via 3GSM. Wireless networks are provided by Unwired, and iBurst in several cities, and Austar has announced wireless plans for regional areas (and Internode received state government funding for wireless in rural South Australia). The federal government is financially aiding better rural broadband access, including encouraging competition where feasible as these are less profitable areas - with less customers, greater line lengths and a higher ULL wholesale line rental from Telstra, and higher rates from Telstra charges for data connections (backhaul) to the cities.



External links


Popular community website Whirlpool acts as a pseudo-watchdog for the broadband industry in Australia with many ISP representatives contributing to its wiki and forum discussions.


New Zealand


In New Zealand the major telephone company Telecom New Zealand owns the majority of the infrastructure and is the only provider of DSL, which they wholesale to their subsidiary Xtra (the largest ISP in New Zealand), as well as many of Telecom's competitors, with varying speeds and download limits. Download speeds are up to 3.5 Mbps, and most services limit speeds (bandwidth cap) to 64 Kbps after going over an allocated allowance.


Telecom has a monopoly on the local loop. There are alternatives such as TelstraClear's cable internet in Wellington and Christchurch, satellite, and wireless in some locations - but products based on Telecom's DSL are the norm. In May 2006 the government announced a comprehensive telecommunications package including unbundling of the local loop to allow other ISPs to compete more effectively against Telecom's DSL offerings.


The largest ISPs in New Zealand are XTRA (Telecom NZ), TelstraClear, ihug, Orcon, Slingshot, and Woosh Wireless.



DSL History




Current DSL

In early 2006, there were growing concerns about below par broadband in New Zealand. On the whole, Telecom's upstream speeds (128 Kbps) and data caps had resulted in New Zealand's internet connections being ranked amongst the worst in the OECD. Competitors were making some changes such as offering higher data caps (XTRA's data caps averaged from 1 to 10 gigabytes of data per month, while competitors such as ihug offered 40 and 60 GB options, or xnet who offered free national data on their ADSL plans.) In mid 2006, Telecom still had control over the network including speeds and how much data they supplied each "UBS" customer


Amidst growing pressure from the government, Telecom boosted downloads to 3.5 Mbps and uploads to 512 Kbps (at high costs such as $20/mth more just for increased upload speeds). Competitors and customers [reported] slower than expected speeds, with one ISP director criticizing [Telecom's backhaul network]. The new plans were also criticised for reducing the data caps on downloads.


The government has now mandated local loop unbundling, which allows other ISPs to setup their own infrastructure and services, using only Telecom's existing copper wiring and exchanges. Several countries do similarly to compete more effectively with the incumbent's offerings. They also mandated Naked DSL, and unconstrained UBS (which may see rapid changes in ISP offerings). The Telecommunications Minister, Mr Cunliffe, expected that the market would feel the effects from 2007-2009, with policy to be enacted commencing at the Budget in May 2006. As a part of the policy, the Government will additionally take steps to encourage private sector investment in improving rural telecommunications services, and will take steps to further open up the marketplace to alternative delivery media, such as fibre optics, cable and satellite.



Competitive broadband


TelstraClear (owned by Australia's dominant telecommunications company, Telstra) is Telecom's biggest competitor, investing heavily in infrastructure throughout New Zealand. They have been laying fibre networks in several cities, and are building a fibre backbone throughout New Zealand. TelstraClear offer their own cable television network with internet broadband in Wellington and Christchurch - at their entry level they offer 1 GB of data and 2 Mbps both up and down (5x more data, 8x faster download speed and 16x faster upload speed for a similar price as Telecom's entry level - $30).


There are multiple wireless broadband options from companies such as Vodafone, Woosh, & BCL which are aiming at nationwide coverage, as well as smaller providers for individual towns. Satellite is available from Bordernet and ICONZ for people in areas unserviced by broadband, and fibre is being developed by several companies in individual cities. [This report] summarises these possibilities as of September 2005.


The most likely point of broadband competition will be with Telecom's local loop unbundling. The ISPANZ group of ISPs are most likely to develop this, including TelstraClear, ihug, Orcon, & Slingshot (ihug already competes similarly in Australia, see iiNet). Possibilities include ADSL2+ at speeds up to 24 Mbps (depending on distance from the exchange), Voice over IP (& regular phones), and future digital TV in triple play offerings.


External links



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