Asia-Pacific Still Ahead In Broadband Boom

The research also shows that China has pulled ahead of the USA. In Q4 2005 both countries acquired 2.5 million new subscribers, although the gap was re-established in Q1 2006, with China adding 3.7 million and the USA 3.3 million. A recent study by Leichtman Research Group showed that US broadband subscribers reached record levels in Q1 (see Broadband Bonanza For US Providers).

In India, broadband subscribers grew by 56.8% in Q1, passing the 1 million threshold. DSL growth contributed most of the net additions with 0.5 million.

In Western Europe, Germany retained its lead, which Point Topic put down to the success of local loop unbundling (LLU) during the second half of 2005. The research also pinpoints Deutsche Telecom as continuing to drive the German broadband market, with quarterly growth rates of between 8% and 9%. Closer to home, bothe the UK and France were shown to have 10.8 million broadband subscribers.

Point Topic said that in keeping with globalisation, around 15 companies and groups contributed 50% of all the broadband net additions in Q1 2006. Top of the list was China Telecom, with Deutsche Telecom Group in second place. However, the ranking used only include direct line access sold to subscribers and third party ISPs. Because of this, France Telecom and its brands which resell other incumbent’s offers ranks lower than Deutsche Telekom (DT) Group, despite its subscriber net additions outpacing that of DT Group.

In research released by Point Topic earlier this month, families with two telephone lines were shown to be 70% more likely to have broadband than those with only one (see Families With Two Telephone Lines 70% More Likely To Have Broadband).

Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions, although making up only 5% of the world’s broadband subscribers are, says the Point Topic study, out to challenge the perception of their regions as ones of few lines and low impacts, with both recoding growth of around 14% for the period.

Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria all showed impressive growth rates of between 147% and 186% year-on-year, with all keeping their momentum in Q1, gaining subscribers considerably faster than the world average of 7.7%. The net result of this, the research shows, is that Estonia and Slovenia have come close to breaking into the lower ranks of Western European countries when it comes to the penetration of broadband services by population. However small the market in Eastern Europe and MEA regions currently is, the research claims that consistent quarterly growth will give rise to hope that the gap will have narrowed considerably by the end of 2006.

Although South Korea no longer has the highest broadband population penetration in the world having been overtaken by Iceland (see Iceland Leads With Broadband Penetration), its broadband market is gearing up for technology substitution. Subscribers to FTTx services in South Korea have grown by 17.9% in Q1 2006, increasing their market share to 15.2%. In comparison, over the same period the national DSL market experienced a 1.6% loss of subscribers, whilst cable modem services fared slightly better with a gain of just over 1.9%.