Carrier IPTV connection rates up around the world

Worldwide subscriptions to IPTV rose to 17 million in the quarter ending June 30, a 11 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 95 percent increase from a year ago, says Point Topic .

Analysts say China and other parts of Asia will lead IPTV growth over the next five years; Western Europe currently has the most IPTV users, and AT&T is ramping up its U-verse service in the U.S.

While initial trials in Switzerland by Microsoft reportedly ran into technical problems, Switzerland IPTV subs rose 20 percent in the second quarter of this year to 80,000, capturing about 2.3 percent of households.

IPTV is also on a role in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and more exotic destinations like Sri Lanka and Ghana.

Gartner forecasts worldwide IPTV subscriptions will reach 54.8 million by 2010, up from an estimate of 19.6 million made at the end of 2007. If the prediction holds, 2.8 percent of households worldwide will have IPTV service by 2010, up from 1.1 percent this year.

In the U.S. Gartner says AT&T's U-verse and Verizon's FiOS services could reach 10 percent of households by 2010. Currently, AT&T has 549,000 U-verse subs and Verizon has 1.4 million FiOS subs, but only a "small percentage" of the subscribers get FiOS TV service.

The big news is in China, where an analyst at iSuppli estimates about 21 million IPTV subscribers by 2012, up from 1.9 million at the end of this year. South Korean phone companies are just starting to roll out live TV as a part of their IPTV services; regulators had limited phone companies to video-on-demand offerings. The country currently has 1.5 million IPTV users.

For more:
- Investor's Business Daily reports carriers worldwide hooking up IPTV to more subscribers. Article [1].