Leadership in the DSL market has shifted from the Asia-Pacific region in favour of Europe, with the latest figures from Point Topic showing that Asia-Pacific countries increased their installed base of DSL lines much more slowly than the leading Europeans.
According to the broadband analysis company, China managed a growth of “only” 56% in 2005, while digital subscriber lines (DSL) in South Korea fell by 250,000.
The US was found to be the fastest growing Top Ten country for 2005 as a whole, adding over 3 million DSL lines and pushing its installed base up by 73%. All the leading European countries grew by more than 40%.
Despite strong overall growth in 2005, the UK did not fair so well in the last quarter of the year. Although it increased its subscriber lines by a reasonable 12.4%, Italy, Spain and Germany all grew more rapidly and France almost as fast.
China and the USA put on 6.9% and 8.8% respectively, while the Asia-Pacific countries remained almost static.
Point Topic revealed that Turkey added more than one million lines in 2005, while Mexico gained an extra 900,000 subscribers, passing 1.6 million.
Elsewhere there were growing signs of saturation among the countries with higher penetration, with Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland all ending the year with relatively slow growth.
According to WPP’s recent OgilvyOne Report, Europe has overtaken North America as the second largest broadband market in the world (see Europe Pushes Broadband Uptake Forward).
The report states that by the end of 2006 the top three countries in terms of broadband penetration will be the Netherlands at 56%, Switzerland with 51% and Denmark at 49%.
Total online household penetration in Western Europe is forecast to reach 63% by 2010, with 93% of online households expected to use broadband to access the internet.
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