Broadband Market to Top 10 Trillion Yen in '07: Govt White Paper
July 5, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Japan needs to promote the use of broadband products and services by bolstering protective measures against computer viruses and other types of cyber attacks, the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said in its annual white paper.
The report forecasts that the broadband-related market will grow to 10.2 trillion yen in 2007, from 2 trillion yen in 2002.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Toranosuke Katayama submitted the report to the cabinet on July 4.
The annual report, titled "Pursuing the Creation of a Japanese-Led New IT Society," states that if Japan takes advantage of its cellular phone and other technologies, it will be able to become a global leader of the next-generation IT industry. The white paper also analyzes the actual status of Japan's IT society and the tasks it faces in order to develop further.
Because charges for high-speed, high-capacity broadband services in Japan are now among the cheapest in the world, the report predicts that the number of subscribers will increase to 59.67 million at the end of 2007, from 19.55 million at the end of 2002.
The spread of broadband services will expand the market for distributing music and other data to about 600 billion yen from about 250 billion yen over the same five-year period, the report says.
The document also points out Japanese companies suffered about 350 billion yen in damages from computer viruses last year.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun)
Japan's Broadband Users Reach 10 Million
July 1, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Japan's broadband users increased 528,892 from the end of April 2003 to reach 10,488,773 million, according to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications in its primary report on the number of broadband subscribers.
It took approximately 10 months since the end of July 2003, when the number of broadband users broke the 5 million mark, to pass another 5 million.
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) users increased 51,400 during the month of May to 398,336. It is the first time to see more than 50,000 users signing up for FTTH services in a month alone, the report said.
The number of subscribers to digital subscriber line (DSL) services was already announced by the ministry on June 9. At the end of May, the number grew 429,492 in the preceding month to 7,907,437.
Japan's Broadband The World's Fastest, Cheapest: ITU
May 8, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Japan offers the fastest, most inexpensive broadband communications services in the world, according to a survey by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an United Nations organization that coordinates telecom policy.
But even as the ITU named it the pioneer of the ubiquitous society, where users can connect to the Internet from anywhere anytime, Japan ranked No. 12 in terms of the percentage of people connected to broadband services. This shows that despite the availability of a broadband infrastructure, the nation still lacks content compelling enough to attract users.
The ITU first compared broadband Internet connection fees as a percentage of average household income in various nations. At 0.8%, Japan had the lowest and thus ranked No. 1. Switzerland and Iceland tied for second place at 1.3% each. South Korea ranked 18th with 3%, despite winning the top spot for the highest percentage of those connected to broadband services, with 21.3 out of 100 people connected. But these comparisons do not take transmission speed into consideration.
When comparing the monthly cost per 100kbps of service, Japan again topped the list with the cheapest, 0.18 dollars, followed by South Korea with 0.29 dollars. Iceland and Switzerland fell to 13th and 16th, respectively, in this category. South Korean services are of high quality but are costly for its citizens, who earn less than their European and Japanese counterparts. On the other hand, communications fees constitute a small portion of average Swiss household income, thanks to high earnings, but the transmission speeds of Swiss services are only 256kbps.
Based on these comparisons, ITU designated Japan, which competes with South Korea for the fastest speed of 12Mbps, as the nation boasting the best overall broadband service in the world.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun)
