A recently-published Broadband Forum report revealed that the global number of broadband subscribers has risen by more than 20%, with over 600-million subscribers in the first quarter of 2012 now connected to broadband Internet. That is a growth of over 100 million new lines added in the last 18 months.
“This is another significant milestone in an exciting arena that shows no sign of slowing down. It is just 18 months since we celebrated the 500 million subscriber watershed and even less time since IPTV subscribers reached 50 million – yet in both cases growth is still accelerating,” said Broadband Forum’s CEO Robin Mersh.
More lines were installed worldwide in the first quarter of 2012 (16.12-million)than compared to last year (14-million), as the figure grew with over 2-million new installations.
“It is especially rewarding to be making this announcement in Asia, which has contributed so much to fuelling this phenomenal success. I am also particularly pleased to see how exceptionally well fibre is doing, a clear indication of the importance of our continued efforts in testing and certification of G-PON,” Mersh continued.
He also highlighted that Asia is the biggest overall region with 262-million broadband subscribers, and added 8.5-million new lines in the first quarter of this year, with China leading the pack with 26.4-million annual growth rate.
“For fibre, the cost-effectiveness, from the operators point of view, and the significant increase in bandwidth over DSL in particular is hitting the sweet spot at the moment in terms of technology market share,” said Oliver Johnson, CEO of research firm Point Topic.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
