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Broadband To Reach 40m Western European Homes By 2005

Broadband To Reach 40m Western European Homes By 2005

There will be more than 40 million high-speed, broadband internet homes in western Europe by 2005, according to the latest forecasts from eMarketer. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.8% on 2002.

According to the figures, only Latin America will show a faster CAGR – at 54.6% – and that rate is so high mainly because the region is starting from a very low base; in 2002, just 881,000 homes in Latin America carried broadband services.

Asia Pacific, the most-connected world region, will hit 67.4 million households by 2005, up from 24.2 million in 2002. Worldwide, the number of homes is expected to rise from 57.2 million in 2002 to 154.3 million in 2005 – a CAGR of 39.2%.

Global Broadband Household Forecasts 
               
  Number Of Households (000s)   
  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  CAGR 2002-2005 (%) 
Asia-Pacific 5,822 12,469 24,226 36,691 50,488 67,355 40.6
Latin America 119 492 881 1,467 2,321 3,255 54.6
North America 5,493 13,930 20,619 28,493 35,591 42,590 27.4
Western Europe 1,633 6,218 11,520 19,536 29,289 41,121 52.8
TOTAL  13,067  33,109  57,246  86,187  117,689  154,321  39.2 
Source: eMarketer, March 2003 

North America Broadband is forecast to be in 22.0% of US homes this year, rising to 32.2% by 2005, according to the Broadband Worldwide report. In Canada, meanwhile, more than half of all households are expected to receive broadband services by 2005.

North American Broadband Penetration (%) Forecasts 
             
  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
Canada 12.0 23.3 28.5 35.9 43.9 50.7
US 3.9 10.5 15.9 22.0 27.2 32.2
Source: eMarketer, March 2003 

“Still gun-shy from the dot-com crash and continuing economic uncertainty, telecom, media and marketing companies are understandably hesitant to fully embrace the broadband concept,” says senior analyst Ben Macklin. “The countries and companies that realise the full potential of widespread broadband will surge ahead in the next decade,” he predicts.

Macklin reckons that users will now begin to take advantage of applications that go beyond the PC and web browsers, citing Microsoft’s Xbox game system as a good example of this. “It uses a high-speed connection to combine entertainment with communication among its users. Meanwhile, AOL has committed $35 million to a branding campaign for broadband and it is finally focusing on delivering the content that can drive broadband subscriptions.”

Separate figures from the Leichtman Research Group show that US broadband uptake saw record growth in 2002, reaching 17.4 million users (see US Broadband Sees Record Growth In 2002). Forecasts from the Yankee Group predict that Western European broadband revenues will be worth $15.8 billion by 2005 (see European Broadband Revenues On The Rise).

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