Games and video drive Asia broadband growth

South Korea is the most wired country in Asia

More than 40 million individuals, businesses and families in Asia will begin using broadband internet connections this year, new forecasts predict.

The Asia-Pacific region will have 171 million broadband subscriptions by the end of 2008, an increase of 31.5 per cent from last year, according to Frost & Sullivan.

"The surge in demand for broadband is driven by the growing popularity of video-on-demand, multi-player online games, video content sharing and social networking services," said senior Frost & Sullivan analyst Yong Lih Khoo.

"There is also an aggressive push by operators to offer innovative bundled triple-play and quadruple-play services."

Despite the rapid growth rate, only 19.7 per cent of households in the region have broadband.

The market will grow at a rate of 7.1 per cent a year to reach a value of $42bn in 2013, compared to its 2007 value of $28.7bn. By the end of 2013, one third of Asia-Pacific households will have broadband.

The most wired country in Asia is South Korea where 90.8 per cent of households have broadband, followed by Hong Kong with 83.8 per cent and Taiwan with 76.8 per cent.

"As fixed-line substitution and voice migration to mobile continues, broadband value-added services become critical drivers for fixed-line service providers," said Khoo.

"Operators are aggressively promoting attractive bundled and discounted price plans, encouraging migration from narrowband, introducing local content and services such as IPTV, and improving service levels and affordability."