Worldwide broadband lines reached 164 million as of 31 March 2005, an increase of 52 million lines since March 2004, adding 28 million lines in the last six months, according to broadband analysis company, Point Topic.
The new figures show the US retaining its position as the world’s largest broadband country achieving 36.5 million lines, while China remains in second place with 28.3 million lines.
Point Topic reveals that the UK is leading the way in terms of growth in the ‘G7 Rankings’, with a 16.5% increase since the end of last year, adding over 1 million lines in the process.
France was the only other G7 country passing 10% growth in the quarter, increasing by 13.5% and adding an equally impressive 913,000 lines in the quarter.
Eastern Europe and a mixture of Latin American and Asia Pacific countries were shown to be dominating ‘Top 10’ growth, with Turkey leading the rankings overall, increasing by 37% in the quarter, adding 179,000 broadband lines.
Poland led the Eastern European countries, achieving 24% growth tobecome the first Eastern European country to pass 1 million lines. Australia continued to impress, achieving 18% growth to reach 1.8 million lines in the quarter.
In South Korea, the broadband market continues its path to saturation, having achieved only 1.4% growth in the quarter. Other countries, especially the established ‘early adopters’ such as Taiwan and even Japan, are showing modest growth of less than 5% over the quarter.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) operators are still dominating the world broadband market, with 107 million out of the 164 broadband subscribers opting for the technology, giving it a 65% market share.
Cable modem broadband subscribers are only higher in the North American market, where both USA and Canada have cable broadband shares of 59% and 52% respectively.
DSL clearly dominates in other major broadband markets, especially in Western Europe, where the high speed lines are at least 70% of the total market in France, Germany, UK and Italy. In Germany, DSL lines form almost 100% of national broadband lines.
In terms of broadband penetration, South Korea has become the first country to reach 25 lines per 100 population, with growth having reached saturation point over 18 months ago.
Elsewhere, Western European countries have moved further up the penetration rankings, with the Netherlands and Denmark in fourth place, having passed 20 lines per 100 population, and Switzerland in fifth place with almost 19 lines per 100 population, passing Canada.
DSL have increased by 10.5% to 107.3 million in the first quarter of 2005, according to Point Topic (see Global DSL Increase By 10.5% In Q1 2005).
Globally, over 37 million DSL lines were added since March 2004 last year, signalling a 54% increase for the 12 months ending 31 March 2005. Just over 10.1 million lines were added in Q1 2005 alone, showing that DSL penetration is continuing to enjoy good momentum in 2005, following the 10.4 million lines added in the fourth quarter of 2004.
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