As the cost of the service becomes cheaper, some developing countries may be able to use wireless broadband technology to leapfrog costly wireline services and can use it to develop an integrated voice, data and video network. For example, in Bhutan, wireless broadband technologies are now used to provide basic voice telephone access, in many cases, connecting villages that did not earlier have a telephone service.

A recently-released ITU report, the Birth of Broadband, says that broadband access may also fuel consumer spending on communication services. For example, South Korea, which is the number one in broadband penetration, enjoys the second highest level of monthly telecommunications spending after Switzerland. Other economies with good broadband penetration like Canada and Iceland also have above-average levels of telecommunications spending. And for businesses, new generation broadband services compete very effectively with leased lines. In fact, in some markets, broadband can be up to 111 times cheaper, per Mbps. 

Also, a vast majority of broadband users today are in the developed world. 

By the end of 2002, broadband services were commercially available in approximately 82 out of 200 economies worldwide. Many of these economies have enjoyed impressive growth in broadband subscriber numbers during the past four years, and in some markets broadband is expected to become one of the fastest growing consumer communications services.