Broadband Access Keeps Expanding, IPTV Deployments Up 179 Percent

The number of people using IPTV services increased 179 percent within 12 months (ended 30 June 2007), and DSL continues to dominate broadband-access technology, accounting for almost 66 percent of subscribers, according to data from Point Topic.

The DSL Forum announced the worldwide broadband and IPTV statistics at the Broadband World Forum Europe this week in Berlin.

Among the broadband-related stats:

• DSL remains the most popular access technology, with over 200 million of the world’s 313 million broadband subscribers connecting via DSL:

• The global market share of broadband technologies remains largely unchanged from December 2006, with almost 22 percent of subscribers using cable, and just over 10 percent using FTTx.
• Western Europe continues to have the most broadband users, with 72 million of the 86 million broadband subscribers using DSL, followed by North America:

• The Eastern Europe DSL market, while small (less than 14 million), is the region with the strongest growth (over 60 percent in the 12 months to 30 June 2007).
• The USA has the most broadband subscribers (over 63 million), but China tops the DSL subscriber share with over 44 million of its 59 million broadband users connected via DSL:

• 15 countries now have over three million DSL subscribers, and 29 have over one million subscribers, with Portugal passing the one million mark in the second quarter of 2007.

Among the IPTV-related stats:

• Europe added over three million subscribers in the 12 months ended 30 June 2007, making it the strongest market both in terms of growth (231 percent in 12 months) and total subscriber numbers (almost five million as of June 30).
• Over eight million people are now connected to IPTV services.

“Top markets like France (2,550,000 customers) and Hong Kong (938,000 customers) show that IPTV can be deployed rapidly to large numbers of subscribers if the market conditions are right,” said Point Topic Senior Analyst John Bosnell.

“On the demand side, competitive and clear bundle pricing and content deals will help to attract customers to IPTV services, while on the supply side making IPTV easier to install and develop will help to deliver IPTV services to a wider subscriber base.”