Too-Much-TV

FTTH increasing - March '04 broadband stats

Download japanbbsubsmar04.xls

Number of broadband subscribers in Japan, end of March 2004.

DSL 11,196,830 (10,904,236)
Fiber 11,196,830 (1,042,776)
Fiber 1,142,335 (1,042,776)
Cable 2,578,000 (2,546,000)
Total 14,917,165 (14,493,012)

DSL increase again just below 300,000/month. But fiber subs are now pushing 100,000/month for the first time (99,559 gain in March.) Almost 32% of households.

The Telecommunications Business Law revised last year and being implemented now, would force NTT East and West to allow other carriers access to its fiber network. NTT is also fighting a Fair Trade Commission cease and desist order claiming the NTT charges competitors higher fiber network access fees than it set as the monthly fee for it's retail fiber to the home service in violation of the anti-monopoly law.

Broadband in Italy and Sweden

Powerpoint about broadband in Italy and Sweden (file size about 1M.)

The presentation was in January, and most of the research done in July 2003 -- so parts are dated. But I think the conclusion is sound: eBiscom is the most advanced broadband company, beats everything going on in Japan and Korea. The only provider, large scale and out of "pilot", I've heard of that's offering fully integrated services, a real triple play.

I've used the notes function so there's a quite detailed description of each slide. Try to describe and compare the two leading European broadband companies, Bredbandsbolaget (Bredband or B2) in Sweden, and eBiscom in Italy.