Broadband Deployment Booming Worldwide as Subscriber Numbers Top 380 Million

Europe is leading the way in terms of broadband subscriber growth for the second year running, according to the latest statistics announced by the Broadband Forum, formerly the DSL Forum, at this year's Broadband World Forum Europe in Brussels. The report, prepared for the Broadband Forum by industry analysts Point Topic, shows that the European region now has nearly 120 million subscribers, a full 32 percent of the global broadband market.

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 strong growth of broadband deployment across the globe. The top 10 countries by broadband subscribers is once again led by the U.S., which has nearly 77 million broadband subscribers. China, whose broadband deployment has grown by over 6.5 percent in the last year and now has just over 76 million subscribers, is a close second and should shortly overtake the U.S. in that top spot. However, European countries dominate the chart, with Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain all in the top 10.

Cable companies have had a solid year with a cable market share of 21.5 percent, whereas telco companies have enjoyed strong growth with their fiber deployments 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, Wi-Fi and others, but also a growing trend of upgrading existing networks to higher speed DSL options.

Within the DSL market share, the deployment of ADSL2plus increased by a significant 62.5 percent. Closely tied to IPTV deployment, service providers are upgrading existing ADSL to ADSL2plus networks.

The Broadband Forum's latest work helps providers get the most out of ADSL2/2plus and VDSL2. Recent approval of Technical Report 176 (TR-176) "ADSL2plus Profiles for IPTV" will assist providers in establishing best practices and specifications that optimize their ADSL2plus networks to better meet customer quality of service expectations of their IPTV service.

"This report demonstrates how the broadband industry is visibly evolving, reacting to a number of variables from economic and environmental factors driving better existing network utilization, to speed and application demands associated with the introduction of new services", explains George Dobrowski, chairman and president of the Broadband Forum.

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