According to IDC, worldwide broadband subscriptions will nearly double in 5 years, expanding from a little more than 205 mln in 2005 to nearly 400 mln in 2010.

By early 2006, Japan had over 24 million broadband services in place, making it the third largest broadband country in the world after the US and China, reports Research and Markets, a market research firm.

Softbank, via its Yahoo! BB service, has been the driving force behind the booming broadband market. Its leadership in the rollout of ADSL services took the Japanese market by storm and the push is continuing.

Enthusiasm for ADSL appears to be waning, however, as FttH starts to present a serious option for broadband service in the country. The FttH subscriber base hit the 5 million milestone in early 2006.

In one of the biggest challenges for the telecom industry in Japan, the government wants to see the domestic fixed-line telephone network completely replaced with a fully integrated IP system. This could possibly happen by as early as 2010.

KDDI has announced that it plans to replace its fixed-line services with the IP system by the start of 2008, while NTT Corp has plans to replace part of its fixed-line services with the IP system by 2010. With NTT still dominating Japanese telecoms infrastructure, KDDI and Softbank have been busily working to bypass NTT’s system in whatever way possible.

NTT’s DoCoMo laid claim to over 50% of Japan’s mobile market into 2006 and was consequently maintaining a comfortable lead over its rivals KDDI and Vodafone K.K. At the same time, KDDI was hanging on to the lead in the all-important 3G market by a reasonable margin, but NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA [3G] service was starting to catch up.

Meanwhile Vodafone K.K. (formerly J-Phone) continued to struggle in the 3G arena, despite some earlier successes in the market. It came as no surprise when Softbank acquired the Vodafone K.K. business in early 2006. The market was threatening to become even busier as Softbank, NTT and eAccess were each awarded a 3G licence in November 2005.

WiBro and WiMAX were not addressed in the Research and Markets report.

Toyko appears to be ground zero for Mobile WiMAX. Toyko Mobile WiMAX trails include:

• NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest cellular operator, is planning a year of tests of IEEE802.16e WiMax in Tokyo using the 2.5GHz band.
• Airspan and YOZAN, a leading telecommunications operator in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, plan to deploy a Tokyo-wide WiMAX network. The Yozan MetroZone will deliver high speed IP connectivity, and support Voice, Video and broadband data services.
• Alcatel has been selected by ACCA Networks, one of Japan’s largest DSL and Optical Fiber Access service providers with over a million subscribers, to launch a Mobile WiMAX trial in the Tokyo area. Alcatel’s Evolium WiMAX radio solution, available in mid-2006, will be used. It will be Alcatel’s first WiMAX reference in Japan based on the 802.16e-2005, the IEEE’s universal WiMAX standard. Key collaborators include Intel Corporation, KT, Samsung and C-DOT. Alcatel has signed partnerships with Samsung, an early developer of the Korean Wi-Bro standard.

Telegeography says total broadband subscribers, from December 2005, broke down regionally like this:

• Asia-Pacific – 89,573,436
• Europe – 63,455,527
• U.S. & Canada – 53,270,000
• Latin America + Caribbean – 9,668,888
• Middle East – 3,863,210
• Africa – 1,987,200
• Global total – 221,818,261

About 6 percent of all advertising spending in the United States went to the Internet in the first quarter of the year, according to Merrill Lynch. But it was clearly the fastest-growing category — up 38 percent year over year, says the New York Times. PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that Internet ad spending over the next five years will more than double globally, to $51.6 billion.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted by Sam Churchill on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 2:28 am.