The Hindu Business Line : Broadband penetration still low: Report

South Korea and Hong Kong lead the way in broadband adoption, boasting penetration levels of 62 per cent and 57 per cent respectively, even as urban India lags behind, according to a latest Forrester report.

"India broadband penetration is very low. Despite efforts to roll out the infrastructure, urban India has only a 3 per cent adoption rate among its top three socio-economic classes (SECs)," the report said, pegging South Korea, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Sweden and metropolitan China in the high broadband penetration category.

It said despite the perception that the US was an across-the-board technology leader, only 39 per cent of Americans have broadband. The report placed the US in a second tier along with the UK, France, and Australia.

"In Western Europe, 21 per cent of German and Italian consumers have broadband access, with Spain close behind at 19 per cent. Eastern European investor-darling Poland trails behind with a 12 per cent adoption rate, reflective of its developing nation status," the report said.

Commenting on the broadband opportunities, it said, that urban Indian consumers would seek out the Web as soon as they have the right hardware. "As broadband infrastructure is slowly rolled out in urban India, more consumers in the top SECs will seek out devices with a balance between price and quality. Companies like Lenovo and HP are in a prime position to strike this balance for consumers interested in PCs on par with their Western counterparts," it said.

The report stated that `limited-functionality offerings' such as Prof Nicholas Negroponte's $100 computer is likely to cater mainly to consumers in lower-income rural areas. "Once urban Indian consumers own the hardware, the connectivity will soon follow. To take advantage of this slow yet steadily growing online population, Microsoft should step in and aggressively advertise Windows Live," it added.