European broadband grows to 135 million subscribers
The Broadband Forum today announced the latest broadband and IPTV statistics in a press conference at Broadband World Forum-Europe. Based on data provided for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic, global broadband grew by 12.9 million lines in the second quarter of 2009 to reach 445 million, while IPTV growth remained strong at 11 per cent - reaching 26.9 million.
In the past twelve months, broadband subscription in Europe grew 13 per cent overall, to reach 135 million, which included an impressive growth of 29 per cent in the Eastern European territories. Europe is the second largest broadband region in the world, and holds four of the top 10 country spots as detailed below.
Top 10 broadband countries
Country | 2008Q2 | 2009Q2 |
Total | Total | |
China | 75,768,350 | 93,549,000 |
USA | 74,440,195 | 86,227,582 |
Japan | 29,584,700 | 31,085,500 |
Germany | 21,420,702 | 24,086,250 |
France | 16,601,286 | 18,324,300 |
UK | 16,718,400 | 17,838,200 |
South Korea | 15,061,659 | 15,876,992 |
Italy | 11,534,230 | 12,855,463 |
Brazil | 8,490,400 | 10,469,755 |
Canada | 9,005,181 | 9,618,107 |
Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic
Europe continues to lead the IPTV success story with 13,631,074 subscribers, a 51 per cent growth over the twelve months leading up to July 2009. In the second quarter 2009, there was a healthy six per cent growth in Western Europe - where France remains the "champion" IPTV country with more than seven million subscribers - and 12 per cent in Eastern Europe, where new services in countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Russia are in demand.
IPTV subscriptions per territory in thousands
Region | 2008Q2 | 2009Q2 |
Western Europe, Middle East and Africa | 8428 | 12416 |
North America | 2718 | 5018 |
South and East Asia | 2512 | 4375 |
Asia Pacific | 2817 | 3835 |
Eastern Europe | 655 | 1215 |
Latin America | 14 | 53 |
Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic
In terms of technology, fiber and wireless broadband continue to gain access technology market share. Consumer demand for IPTV seems to be driving the rollout of higher bandwidth options.
"This report shows that, while broadband adoption is not immune from the state of the world economy, the technology continues to move forward and I believe this year has shown that broadband expansion is not limited to the top industrialized countries, but is a key factor in assisting developing nations to gain a foothold in today's tough market," said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum.
"The Forum continues to drive broadband innovation, and with our latest work around IPTV network and service assurance, we continue to ensure that the industry has all the tools and specifications it needs to optimize networks and to capture the full potential of broadband and IPTV worldwide. We have also undertaken several initiatives in areas such as energy efficiency this year, which will help facilitate network energy savings as broadband growth continues across the world."
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Printed from http://www.eurocomms.com/online_press/113199/European_broadband_grows_to_135_million_subscribers.html
Comment on this article
Skip to comments
We encourage users to analyse, comment on and even challenge European Communications's articles, including the one above - 'European broadband grows to 135 million subscribers'
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.