By the end of March 2004, the total number of worldwide DSL lines reached 73 million, according to Point Topic’s latest analysis on the DSL market.
Growth was almost 15% for the first quarter of 2004, with a record 9.5 million absolute increase in lines since the end of 2003. This is good news for the market, in what is usually a comparatively weak time of year.
Demonstrating the universal appeal of DSL, the number of countries offering DSL has increased to include New Caledonian and Pakistan.
China has increased its lead as the world’s biggest DSL country, reaching 13.9 million lines at the end of March. An impressive increase of 2.8 million lines in the first quarter shows China forging ahead of Japan and the USA, as had previously been predicted by Point Topic.
Europe is continuing to show strong growth, Italy has overtaken Taiwan to move into the top seven countries and France has narrowed the gap with Germany, passing 4 million lines.
