The FCC's latest numbers show DSL is becoming a world-wide competitive monster. The report (available here in pdf format) explores various countries strategies in fostering broadband deployments. The survey only focuses on members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Some of the more interesting findings:

-In 1999, cable broadband accounted for 84% of all broadband subscribers. By 2002, DSL accounted for 54 percent of broadband subscribers in the "industrialized world", cable accounting for 41 percent.

-Of the countries surveyed, Sweden was the only country with a fairly robust third broadband option for consumers: Ethernet LANs. Bredbandsbolaget offers 10Mbps connections to many apartment buildings via fiber and switched Ethernet networks.

-South Korea naturally leads in per capita deployments, with Canada close behind. It's theorized that South Korea's aggressive government funding of deployment, mixed with "open access" to cable networks are to thank (in part) for the standing. The court ruling to open cable competitors to competition in the U.S. (explored in a previous BBR story here) could help the U.S. rise in per capita deployments.

-Naturally broadband is still in its infancy. Within OECD countries, there were 62 million broadband connections at the end of 2002. For comparison, there are 150 million dial-up users, 400 million mobile phone users, and 500 million land-line phone users.

-The United states leads all OECD countries with nearly 20 million subscribers for all broadband services; cable accounting for 11,300,000 of that total.

-100Mbps fiber service is available to 43% of Japan, with 200,000 subscribers signing up for service by the end of 2002. Japan continues to be the global leader in inexpensive broadband options.