The University of Oxford and Oviedo just released a report in conjunction with Cisco ranking broadband quality per country.  The numbers are quite impressive.  South Korea just surpassed Japan and Sweden to top the list.  Below are some of the country rankings.  The number next to the country is the Broadband Quality Score (BQS) – measured by taking download speed, upload speed, and latency into account:

1. South Korea – 65.99
2. Japan – 63
3. Sweden – 57
4. Lithuania – 54
5. Bulgaria – 49
14. France – 37.5
16. United States – 37
31. Britain – 30.5
43. China – 26
63. India – 20

South Korea’s government is pushing to be the world leader in IT.  It’s obviously paying off.

As entrepreneurs, the next big question is – how does broadband connectivity affect the entrepreneurship levels of a particular country?

If we look at the latest Total Entrepreneurial Activity percentages for these countries, is there a correlation between the rankings?  And would this show up in the rankings now or in a few years from now?  Here are the entrepreneurial percentages for the countries listed above:

1. South Korea – 10%
2. Japan – 5.4%
3. Sweden – 4.2% (2007)
4. Lithuania – n/a
5. Bulgaria – n/a
14. France – 5.6%
16. United States – 10.8%
31. Britain – 5.9%
43. China – 16.4%
63. India – 6.9%

There doesn’t appear to be much of a correlation here.  Perhaps this is something we will see further down the road.

Here is a chart highlighting the the Broadband Quality Score per country.

Click here for the entire report broadband quality report provided by the Said Business School at Oxford, and Cisco.  This report also contains a breakdown by city.

And click here for a wikipedia report on broadband use per country.