This is a translation from an article in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
[quote]A total of 64 % of the swedes has access to Internet in their homes, compared to 54% in USA. Sweden also, together with Denmark and Belgium, has the largest amount of homes with broadband connections. The broadband connected homes rate is at 10% for the three countries.
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I must say the figures far far lower then I’d expected. :’(
It all depends on defining ‘broadband’. For me, broadband is basically anything over 10kbytes/s which is connected 24h at same cost. Fact that you do not pay per hour means that you care less about extra download. If you want to download 300M demo, you just leave computer overnight.
In case of such studies, I suppose that they assume some arbitral cutoff (2Mbit/s for example) and count broadband only from that up. This would mean that ADSL user with 64kbytes/s incoming connection is not broadband.Without knowing the real distribution, it is hard to tell if 10% means anything (ADSL user certainly will not cry over having to spend 5 extra minutes to download JRE).
Doesn’t help but here is a pretty good definition of broadband:
BROADBAND - A transmission facility having a bandwidth sufficient to carry multiple voice, video or data channels simultaneously. Each channel occupies (is modulated to) a different frequency bandwidth on the transmission medium and is demodulated to its original frequency at the receiving end. Channels are separated by ìguardbandsî (empty spaces) to ensure that each channel wonít interfere with its neighboring channels. This technique is used to provide 50 CATV channels on one coaxial cable.
[quote] This technique is used to provide 50 CATV channels on one coaxial cable.
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You certainly do not need that to download JRE…
For me, dial-up versus dedicated line comparison would be a lot more useful than broadband versus not-so-broad-band - at least if we are talking about JRE download and not video-on-demand system.
The percentage of broadband users in North america is closer to 50%… the 10% figure is WAY too low for over here…
Heck, my ISP just doubled my bandwidth for free. My downloads typically go at 310kB/s now and there are no limits to the amount I can transfer. For the reasonable price of $45 Canadian dollars per month (+tax).
[quote]The percentage of broadband users in North america is closer to 50%… the 10% figure is WAY too low for over here…
Heck, my ISP just doubled my bandwidth for free. My downloads typically go at 310kB/s now and there are no limits to the amount I can transfer. For the reasonable price of $45 Canadian dollars per month (+tax).
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That’s nice. In particular this ~50% number for broadband users.
According to Bitkom in Germany currently ~50% of the ~80 million people have got Internet access. In about 2 years this will increase to > 60%.
However “just” ~5% have (A)DSL (kind of broadcast), which currently means in absolute numbers ~4 million people. Until 2006 the DSL user number will double to 8 million, according to Bitkom estimates. (Typically DSL users have got flat rates with no volume limit and download rates from 96 to xyz KB/s.)
So… in relative numbers this is not too bright, just 10% broadband users here in the near future. But in absolute numbers it’s still a good market: ~8 million broadband users, out of ~50 million Internet users for your local distribution. 
hmmm I guess the article provides false statistics or have an insanly high limit for what counts as broadband then. In another article in another paper today they stated that 83% of the population in Sweden can get broadband.
Hehe and when i think of it I don’t have a single friend or relative that is connected to internet through a modem. Even my puny little birthtown with 1800 inhabbitants has 10Mbit dsl
Ah gotta love the newspapers use of statistics and quoteing of research repports. One day you’ll die if you eat a tomato and the next you’ll be immortal if you do. 
[quote]That’s nice. In particular this ~50% number for broadband users.
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Just to clarify… I mean that 50% of households with internet access have broadband. NOT that 50% of all households have broadband access.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” ~ Mark Twain
One of a few of my favorite quotes. I often paraphrase it in speeches by replacing “statistics” with “benchmarks.” Fundamentally the same problem. A number in of itself is objective but as soon as you start applying meaning to numbers you immediately enter subjectivity-ville.
The paper probably classifies broadband as 2+ Mbit. A few years ago some Swedish telecom or consumer rights authority defined broadband that way, and that definition has kind of stuck in the public mind over here. Most permanent connections are at 0.5Mbit though.
Just read that 18% of all households in norway has broadband. I think they count all permanent connections abouve 128kbit.
The size of the JRE is less of an issue than actually having to install it, which is 10x worse. You’ll have to wait a few years for Sun’s big push to get the JRE on OEM equipment to make a significant impact.
Cas
The “Pew Internet and American Life Foundation” published a new study about broadband internet usage in USA. Two key sentences:
39% of adult Internet users - or 24% of all adult Americans - have high-speed access at home, an increase of 60% since March 2003.
55% of all adult Internet users - or 34% of all adult Americans - have access to high-speed Internet connections either at home or on the job.
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Broadband04.DataMemo.pdf
It’s getting better but not exactly speedily. Reckon on 10 years or so for optimal broadband penetration and ubiquitous Java.
Cas
[quote]It’s getting better but not exactly speedily. Reckon on 10 years or so for optimal broadband penetration and ubiquitous Java.
Cas
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I think you’re off by a factor of 10