|
Broadband Access
Broadband boom borders 120 million in Europe
Region commands 32 percent of overall worldwide growth, says Broadband Forum
by Kendrick Struthers-Watson
According to figures released here in Brussels at the Broadband World Forum, Europe is leading the way in terms of broadband subscriber growth for the second year running, judging on the statistics from the Broadband Forum.
The report, prepared for the Broadband Forum by industry analysts Point Topic, shows the European region has nearly 120 million subscribers, a full 32 percent of the global broadband market.
The top 10 European countries by broadband subscription are:
The statistics also show that worldwide broadband subscribers have now surpassed 380 million, an increase of 17 percent in the past 12 months, demonstrating the continuing string growth of broadband deployment across the globe.
The top ten global countries by broadband subscribers is once again is led by the U.S. which has nearly 77 million subscribers. China, whose broadband deployment has grown by over 6.5 percent it the last year, has just over 76 million subscribers is a close second and could shortly overtake the U.S. in the top spot. However, European countries dominate the chart with Germany, UK, France Italy and Spain all in the top ten.
Top 10 countries by broadband subscription:
Cable companies have had a solid year with a cable market share of 21.5 percent, whereas traditional Telcos have enjoyed strong growth with their fiber deployment growing significantly over the same time period, up by over 25 percent and DSL approaches 250 million subscribers and remains the most popular access technology with 64 percent of the market share.
The rise in subscribers together with the broadening reach and capabilities of broadband, both geographically and technologically, has led to an increase in alternative access technologies such as WiMAX, WiFi and others, but also a growing trend of upgrading existing networks to higher speed DSL options. Within the DSL market share, the deployment of ADSL2+ increased by a significant 62.5 percent. Closely tied to IPTV deployment, service providers are upgrading their existing ADSL to ADSL2+ and later VDSL2 networks.
Commenting on these latest figures, Robin Mersh, Chief Operating Officer for Broadband Forum, said, “Clearly, telco’s are doing well in the broadband advance and regardless of the delivery technology they have to use to reach new customers. At the Broadband Forum, we are using all the sometimes painful experiences we gained with DSL and using that knowledge to benefit the accelerating growth of broadband."
|
