Global Broadband Network Construction Status Ranking: China Not in the Top 30?

When we (referring to certain groups of people, excluding ZFreet) were still proud of the fact that the total number of Internet users in our country, as announced by CNNIC, had surpassed 210 million, a recent report released by ITIF titled "Explaining International Broadband Leadership" (Global Broadband Network Construction Status Report), due to the involvement of numerous indicators and other comprehensive factors, China did not make it onto the list.

Reference: Recently, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a ranking of the global broadband network construction status for 2008. This ranking statistically analyzed various countries' situations from multiple aspects such as broadband penetration rate, average speed, and price. South Korea was found to have the most advanced broadband network, while China failed to make the list.

The report shows that South Korea has the most developed broadband network with a score of 15.92, a household broadband penetration rate of 93%, and an average speed of 49.5 Mbps. Japan ranked second, and Finland third. The United States only ranked fifteenth with a household broadband penetration rate of 57% and an average speed of 4.9 Mbps. Mexico ranked thirtieth with an average speed of 1.1 Mbps.

Industry insiders believe that since this ranking comprehensively considers indicators such as penetration rate and download speed, despite the enormous number of broadband network users in China, the overall level of broadband usage remains relatively low.

According to the statistical report on China's Internet issued by CNNIC as of the end of last year, the total number of Internet users in our country reached 210 million, with 163 million broadband Internet users. The overall Internet penetration rate is 16%, still lower than the global average of 19.1%. If we calculate the broadband penetration rate, it would be even lower. Moreover, broadband usage mostly remains at the ordinary ADSL level (512 Kbps).