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Asia leads in full fibre penetration

Asia leads in full fibre penetration

Asia leads in full fibre penetration

Almost 89% of South Korean connections are full-fibre and Singapore boasts the world’s fastest fixed broadband partly thanks to a wide range of measures. 

Asia: leading the world in full fibre penetration

Full-fiber networks can deliver speeds of 10 Gb/s or higher, while mixed networks typically top out at around 1 Gb/s. South Korea has the highest share of full fiber connections, with almost 89% of all broadband connections being fiber-based as of June 2023. This is significantly higher than the OECD average of around 41%. South Korea is closely followed by Japan at 86%.

South Koreans are among the world’s most avid internet users. Far-reaching urbanization has also stimulated demand for fast and reliable internet services, particularly in densely populated areas such as Seoul and Busan. Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan also have a high percentage of households with fully fiber-based broadband connections, at 75%, 70%, and 65% respectively. In contrast, around 30% of US households have fiber-based broadband connections. In Germany and the UK, this is around 20% and in France it’s some 15%.

The regulatory environment in many Asian countries has been conducive to fibre deployment, with policies that encourage investment in infrastructure and promote competition. Over the years, several governments have made significant investments in fibre infrastructure. For example, South Korea's "National Information Infrastructure" project has helped create a high-speed internet infrastructure across the country. Japan's "Fiber-to-the-Home" project, aimed to provide high-speed internet access to all households by 2020, and Singapore's "Next-Generation National Broadband Network" project, aims to provide high-speed internet access to all households by 2025. The South Korean government has also offered economic incentives to companies that invest in fiber-optic infrastructure, such as tax breaks, subsidies, and low-interest loans. This has attracted significant investment from private companies and encouraged them to expand their fiber networks.

South Korea also scores extremely well when it comes to fibre network access in general, with around 97.2 percent of its population using the internet. What’s more, South Korea is among the countries with the highest average mobile internet connection speed worldwide. When it comes to speed, Asia perfoms exceedingly werll. Too: As of January 2024, Singapore boasts the world’s highest average fixed broadband internet speed, with an average of 278 Mb/s. Hong Kong is a very close second at 275 Mb/s. Singapore's combination of government initiatives, competition, regulatory environment, fiber-optic infrastructure, investment in infrastructure, and research and development have contributed to its status as having the world's fastest broadband speeds. In fact: 100% of households have access to fiber-optic broadband, and 99% of households have access to high-speed internet (above 10 Mb/s).

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