t) which may put pressure on the roaming market in some OECD countries, depending on regulation. INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 - © OECD 2006 2. TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030 Table 2.2. The global distribution of WIFI Hotspots - Commercial hotspots in 2004 1 United States 20 488 Korea Italy Sweden Australia Canada Taiwan Japan 1 022 Germany 1 167 France 1 676 United Kingdom 4 620 Total 49 577 1. François Bar, "Divergent patterns of global innovation: WiFi in the US", Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, United States, presented at ENST, Paris, April 2004; and EC/IPTS study, "Mapping European Wireless Trends and Drivers", 2005, Case Study on Korea. Table 2.3. Telecom Diffusion within the OECD area population OECD 2003 Telephone Mobiles Internet Population Population Population Mobile Mobile Fixed lines density as % of total users (million) (million) (million) subscribers (per 100 (x 1 000) (per 100 telephone (% of (x 1 000) population) population) subscribers population) 1 153 503 435 43.67 741 1343 1 275 1 1. Population of current OECD members. Source: US Census Bureau, OECD, International Telecommunication Union. However, as will be shown below, this traditional position of the OECD area as a technology and deployment leader may now be challenged. Moreover, its advantages in an early technology lead could hold back certain OECD member states due to "intense political inertia" for protection of sunk investments in a fixed, low bandwidth, high-cost, circuit-switched, national infrastructure. Nor has this inertia disappeared with recent deregulation when considering the next generation of digital packet-based DSL lines. The United States, Japan, and now Germany (although now being questioned by the EC) are proposing protection from unbundling and sharing by incumbents of their new broadband fibre and xDSL local loop networks. 9 Such moves can exclude competitive access for service provision over the new investments, the