Japan: Is ADSL obsolete?

Japan: Is ADSL obsolete? For the first time in Japan, fiber optic new connections in 1Q05 were higher than ADSL new connections: 420,000 for fiber vs 350,000 for ADSL. There are 13.7m ADSL users in Japan (growing 2.6% p.a) vs 2.9m fiber optic customers (growing 17% p.a). EC Research forecasts 58m broadband users by 2008, of which 46m connected via a fiber. Why Japan is ahead of the rest of the world? Because NTT, the local incumbent, has installed between 96 and 05 some 25 million km of fiber in the access network, and continues to invest 25% of its capex in its fiber optic network.