Why China is beating the US in the gigabit broadband race?
In this day of age, everything is a race. It turns out the gigabit broadband race is mainly between the United States and China. Recently, Rethink Technology came out with a report that they believe in 2023, China will have 57% of gigabit connections, North America will have 11%, and Europe with 18%. This is truly significant since many countries want to dominate the industry.
The main reason for the lack of growth in the United States is the small number of privately-owned broadband companies. Most of the broadband companies in the United States are publicly held, and therefore cannot compete against each other nor form localized monopolies. China, in comparison, has three big state-owned telecom businesses that deliver the gigabit broadband quickly and to as many people as possible.
While there are major barriers in the gigabit industry, the biggest barrier is the cost factor. Rethink predicts in two years “1Gbps broadband will become commonplace and inexpensive.” Rethink also mentions the percentage of active users will still increase from 5% to 8% in the coming years; however, that will change over time as full fiber connections are built out and become the standard for the fastest speed for consumers. As many more buildings start to prefer full fiber connections, the existing infrastructure like G.fast and G.Now will become nonexistent.
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