Broadband Line Installations Reach 484 Million, up 12% Year-over-Year

Global broadband lines now top 484 million lines (484,788,597), representing a 3.12% growth in the quarter and 12.41% in the last 12 months to end of Q1 2010, according to new figures from Point Topic and the Broadband Forum.


Some highlights of the new report:


The number of IPTV subscribers worldwide grew to 36.3 million. The 12 months from Q109 to Q110 saw global growth of 46% in IPTV subscriber terms. This equates to 11.4 million new IPTV subscribers, the most rapid growth in any 12 month period yet recorded.


China and the USA are the top two countries for both broadband and IPTV.


Asia was responsible for more than 53% of the broadband lines added, with mainland China alone accounting for 45% of the total lines added worldwide in Q1 2010. China continues to be at the top of the table in terms of broadband with continued healthy growth at 5.67% in the quarter and 20.96% in the twelve month period, taking it to 112,594,000 subscribers. This made China the fastest growing country in both percentage and in absolute terms in the first three months of 2010.


Six of the top ten countries improved their performance in Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009; China, the USA, Germany, the UK, South Korea and Brazil all grew more quickly in the first quarter of 2010 against Q4 2009.


DSL continues to be the most popular access technology for broadband. Fiber continues to grow quickly, and the figures for Q1 2010 show that Asia now has over 50 million fibre subscribers. The growth in fibre is expected to be the dominant theme over the next few years although DSL still has its place particularly in the second wave broadband countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, as does wireless particularly where the geography of a country makes fixed connections more difficult.ttp://www.broadband-forum.orghttp://point-topic.com