DSL Installed Base Reaches 173 Million

DSL's subscriber base worldwide has exceeded 173 million while global broadband subscribers reached more than 263 million in the 12 months to 30 September 2006. DSL's market share now stands at 65.6% market share, rising to 82% in the European Union.





According to the DSL Forum and industry analyst Point Topic, each week 1.25 million people sign up to broadband.



Globally, the largest broadband market in the world is the USA with more than 55.5 million subscribers, followed by China at 48.5 million. Japan in third place has almost 26 million. Together, they account for almost half of all broadband connections across the world.





Some other key findings:



Sixteen countries now have over two million DSL subscribers, together representing just under half of all broadband customers using this technology.







"As the global reach of broadband into people's lives continues to grow, the range of access technologies used to deliver its benefits is also expanding to capitalise on the various available infrastructures. Even though DSL is the predominant delivery technology in the world, the DSL Forum is working to extend the benefits of our own specifications to be equally applicable for other network technologies and to address the service delivery needs of the ever-growing range of multimedia devices and applications that depend on broadband for their success."http://www.dslforum.org