Comparing country growth rates in broadband

Point Topic's Broadband Growth Index

Point Topic is launching a new index for comparing broadband growth rates between countries. Called the Broadband Growth Index it shows how rapidly broadband is growing in different countries after taking their existing level of development into account. It reflects the fact that broadband penetration is likely to grow faster where it is low today than in countries where penetration is already high. Ranking 35 countries on this measure shows that Switzerland, China and Italy were the three fastest growing countries in 2003, compared with expectations, while Latvia, the Czech Republic and New Zealand were the slowest.

The Index itself is simply the ratio of the actual broadband growth in a country to the rate of growth which would be expected given its existing level of broadband development. Point Topic has calculated it for 35 countries and the results are shown in Figure 1. The reasons for producing such an index, and the methodology used for calculating it are explained in later sections of this paper. More detailed figures for each country are provided in a separate spreadsheet available to Point Topic subscribers.

Figure 1 Point Topic Broadband Growth Index for 2003