Broadband grows at record pace globally
More than 540 million people around the world now have a fixed broadband connection, according to the Broadband Forum (BBF).
More than 15.2 million people subscribed to a fixed broadband service in 1Q2011, pushing the annual growth rate to a record 11.9%, the BBF said.
Asia, which already has 42% of total fixed broadband subscribers, is also the fastest-growing at 16.2%, followed by the Middle East and Africa at 11.5%, the BBF said.
A leading cause was the growth in internet TV (IPTV), which leaped 34% in a year, the BBF said, quoting figures from market researcher Point Topic.
| Global Fixed Broadband |
2010Q1 |
2011Q1 |
% growth in quarter |
% growth year |
|
Asia |
194,853,371 |
226,436,844 |
3.91% |
16.21% |
|
Europe |
146,274,402 |
159,736,246 |
2.03% |
9.20% |
|
Americas |
127,099,672 |
137,963,717 |
2.33% |
8.55% |
|
Middle East & Africa |
14,795,742 |
16,495,650 |
2.36% |
11.49% |
|
Total |
483,023,187 |
540,632,457 |
2.90% |
11.93% |
Source: Point Topic
“Europe continues to be the largest region with over 21 million IPTV subscribers, but Asia is catching up fast with 18 million, and both China and Taiwan showing growth of over 50%. Of the 2.9 million new subscribers added in Q12011, 1.4 million came from Asia,” the BBF said.
During the quarter, growth in the the number of fibre connections outpaced that of (copper) ADSL connections by 5.8% to 2.3%. Total subscriber numbers rose to 76.2 million and 341.7 million respectively.
The BBF found fixed wireless access (FWA) beginning to take off as the number of subscribers rose 3.4% from 8.2 million to 9.5 million in the quarter, or an annualised 15.9%.
