Telecompaper has updated its global research on the penetration of broadband services able to deliver over 50 Mbps. The country rankings are based on three widely-deployed technologies able to offer 50+ Mbps: FTTH, Docsis 3.0 and VDSL2. Since our last report on 2011, we have extended our rankings to include the top fifteen countries in terms of coverage. The only country with 100 percent coverage is Andorra, followed by several with 99 percent. The Netherlands now shares fourth place with 97 percent coverage. In the majority of top-15 countries, cable and fibre are responsible for the high speeds. We also looked more closely at European coverage, where first place is for Andorra with second place shared by Portugal and Lithuania at 98 percent, followed by the Netherlands and Denmark with 97 percent. Countries such as Belgium, Romania and Switzerland are also progressing well, reaching 80 percent or higher coverage in 2012. The data shows many countries are well on the way to achieving the Digital Agenda goals set by the EU. In several countries this is helped by governments actively promoting or investing in national broadband plans, while LTE may also provide a good alternative to extending coverage in remote areas.
