Worldwide broadband: 484 million lines and counting

For the first time since the end of 2008, Point Topic revealed in its latest research at the CommunicAsia trade show that broadband subscriptions rebounded after a year of slow growth.

As of the end Q1 2010, there were 484 million worldwide subscribers, an increase of 14.7 million lines and a more than 3 percent increase in the past three months.

Once again, Asia-Pacific led the charge with 53 percent of overall growth with China taking 45 percent of the overall worldwide total.

Led by aggressive service providers such as China Telecom, which is in the midst of building out a large-scale Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network, China is by far the largest broadband country in the world. And with over with over 112.5 broadband lines, China continues to surpass the U.S., the second largest broadband country.

As of the end of Q1 2010, the U.S. had 87 million broadband lines with "modest" growth seen in the quarter. However, China and the U.S. were still part of the top six in the top 10 broadband ranking-in addition to Japan, Germany, France and the UK-where broadband saw an uptick in growth over Q1 2009.

While fiber-based broadband (Fiber to the Node, Fiber to the Curb/Cabinet and Fiber to the Home) is seeing growth, DSL continues to be the dominant broadband method.

Top 10 Broadband Countries - Point Topic

For more:
- Connected Planet has this article

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