Broadband services continue to be in high demand, attracting millions of new subscribers worldwide each month, according to a new report from In-Stat.
Over the past 12 months, approximately 80 million new broadband subscribers signed up for high-speed access to the internet, the high-tech market research firm said.
In terms of broadband access technologies, digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies continue to serve the greatest number of broadband subscribers worldwide, accounting for 55% of total broadband connections.
Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst, said: “The increasing popularity of online applications such as downloading music files, watching TV programming, and playing online video games, are driving demand for ‘fatter pipes’ that provide ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth.
“Being able to use these applications, combined with the basic consumer desire to surf the net, is fuelling global demand for broadband services.”
In-Stat also found that as of September 2008, there are 452 million broadband subscribers worldwide.
By 2012, In-Stat forecasts that worldwide broadband subscribers will reach 876 million, almost twice the size of the current subscriber base.
Point Topic recently revealed that China has overtaken the United States as the country with the most broadband lines, growing twice as fast as America (see China Overtakes America With Most Broadband Lines).
Point Topic found that China and the US both had around 78 million broadband lines at the end of August, but the number in China is now growing rapidly, making them the largest broadband market in the world.
Looking at the UK, figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 16.46 million UK households currently have internet access, representing 65% of households and an increase of 1.23 million households since 2007 (see 16.5m UK Households Have Internet Access).
Of all UK households, 56% have broadband internet access, an increase from 51% in 2007, while of the UK households with internet access, 86% have a broadband connection.
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