The broadband Internet market in Asia Pacific appears to be outstripping everywhere else in the world, with a predicted 35 million subscribers by 2004, according to Dataquest, a unit of the Gartner research group.
Andrew Chetham, senior analyst, Telecommunications APAC, Dataquest, said that Korea accounts for a large proportion of the broadband growth, with more than three million broadband users there.
"The lesson from Korea is that once the basic infrastructure is in place and competition drives down prices, dial-up users switch to broadband in droves," Chetham said.
Chetham told ZDNet that the US was hitting around five million broadband subscribers a few months ago, and it is most likely that Asia Pacific and the US will be neck and neck in terms of users by the end of the year.
However, apart from Korea, broadband services in other Asian countries are still in the infancy stage, with most of them launched only in the last 12 months.
The lack of killer application for broadband is another problem, according to Dataquest. Currently, the only lure of broadband is its additional speed of access.
"In the way that email drove people to start using the Internet, we are lacking some universal application that will drive people to upgrade to broadband. These may be applications that have not yet emerged. Extra speed itself is not an application," Chetnam said.
"One potential example is Napster, the peer-to-peer music swapping service. In the dial-up world, Napster is slow, clunky and very frustrating to use. Using broadband, it becomes alive; a simple, quick and easy process, opening up a new world of music. I'm not saying Napster is a killer app (or condoning its use) but it shows that upgrading to broadband makes it a much more viable application."
Chetnam, however, believes that while no other market in Asia Pacific can currently match Korea for the level of competition, several countries now have multiple broadband operators, and as such look poised to enjoy a period of strong take-up of high-speed services. 35 million broadband users in Asia Pac by 2004.
