DSL Maintains Global Broadband Dominance

The growth in DSL subscribers, according to the latest data from industry analyst Point Topic, was more than double that of the other broadband access technologies in the same year. The huge growth experienced by DSL from June 2003 to June 2004 spurred the overall broadband subscriber total to 123 million in the period from June 2003 to June 2004, growing by almost 55%.

The USA, which comfortably has the world’s largest broadband population, saw the number of DSL subscribers grow by 48%, compared to cable and other technologies which saw a combined growth of 31%.

Europe has narrowly over-taken Asia Pacific as the number one DSL region, growing its base by 11 million subscribers in the past year, taking its total number of DSL subscribers to 23 million.

South and East Asia was the fastest growing region for DSL during the 12 month period, with a 110% growth, while the Middle East and Africa showed a 107% increase and Latin America, a rise of 104%.

Regional Breakdown

In China, which now leads the world in delivering DSL broadband services, climbed up from fourth position a year ago and saw DSL subscriptions grow by nearly 13 million in the 12 months to June 2004.

The UK has also saw great improvements in the popularity of DSL broadband, with subscriptions growing by 1.65 million during the period, moving up from eleventh position last year to eighth this year.

Australia has entered the Top 20 DSL countries list for the first time after seeing a growth of nearly 147% in one year.

Top 20 Countries: Total DSL Subscribers Q2 2004
Ranking	Country	Total DSL Q2 2004
1	China	12,710,000
2	Japan	12,068,718
3	USA	11,434,254
4	South Korea	6,666,190
5	Germany	5,000,000
6	France	4,687,000
7	Italy	3,332,975
8	UK	2,724,698
9	Taiwan	2,720,000
10	Canada	2,436,246
11	Spain	2,067,031
12	Netherlands	1,387,000
13	Brazil	1,366,048
14	Belgium	918,064
15	Hong Kong	753,000
16	Australia	710,200
17	Sweden	656,842
18	Switzerland	656,000
19	Denmark	562,000
20	Portugal	555,341