New Zealand has ranked squarely in the middle of the latest OECD broadband penetration rankings, our rate of 26.9 subscriptions per 100 households placing us 17th out of 34 countries.
Although we're ahead of Australia, who placed 21st with 24.6% penetration, we're well behind leaders Switzerland, who recorded 39.9% penetration. The United States (27.7%), Canada (32%), the United Kingdom (33.3%) and Japan (27.4%) were also ahead of us.
Over 94% of our subscriptions were on DSL, with 5% on Cable and just a fraction on fibre. The figures represent the standings at December 2011, before work on the government's Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) network began gathering steam, so this figure can be expected to go up – particularly with companies like Orcon aggressively pushing UFB services.
In wireless broadband, New Zealand ranked 9th with 67.5 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Australia was slightly ahead in 8th with 74.4, while Korea led the way with a massive 100.6 connections per 100 people.
We've reached out to ICT Minister Amy Adams for comment and will post an update when we hear back. In the meantime you can check out the figures in detail here.
