A Quarter of Households will have Broadband by 2012

After conducting a recent survey, leading researchers at Gartner, have predicted that 25 per cent of households worldwide will have a broadband connection by the year 2012. Figures produced last year showed that there were 323 million homes that had a broadband connection, this forms 18 per cent of the total number of households.

The prediction is that figures will rise to 499 million by the year 2012. This shows the extent of how popular the internet has become and how it is showing no signs of slowing down. Currently in the UK, there are 58 per cent of people with broadband internet, and this is likely to increase to 74 per cent in the next four years. If this was to happen, the UK would be 9th in the list of the most connected nations around the world. The survey has predicted that the current front runners for the most wired countries; Holland, Canada, Hong Kong, Switzerland and South Korea, who are the only countries to have over 60 per cent of broadband infiltration, will continue to hold their top positions in the future. After Gartner compare broadband figure and statistics, they release the findings of their research and have recently stated that they predict the broadband penetration will increase in geographically bigger markets. This is due to these places having high broadband levels, due to them being the ones that have many broadband services on offer and this looks set to continue.

The reason for this is perhaps due to these regions being more interested and inclined towards new applications and content on the internet.