Almost 40 million people worldwide signed up for digital subscriber line (DSL) technology for their broadband access in the 12 months to 30 September 2005, according to the latest data produced for the DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic. That growth of 45% - over 100,000 every day - means that more than 125 million homes and businesses now enjoy the benefits of broadband DSL. By the end of 2005, global DSL subscribers will approach 140 million, extending its share of the total broadband access market.
European Union countries accounted for close to 40% of the total growth in new broadband DSL subscribers in the period, confirming the EU's position as the number one most active DSL region worldwide. The UK and France led the way, each adding more than three million subscribers.
The Middle East and Africa region was the fastest growing, with a 140% increase in DSL subscribers - led by Turkey, which added more than 850,000, becoming the first country in the region to pass the one million mark. Latin America has established a DSL subscriber base of more than five million. Brazil added 1.1 million in the year and Mexico saw 98% growth in its subscribers to DSL.
A total of 19 countries achieved more than one million subscribers by the third quarter of 2005, with Australia, Belgium, Turkey, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland breaking through the barrier in the past year.
China alone added almost 10 million DSL subscribers and is rapidly approaching 25 million in total. The USA extended its lead over Japan as the second largest DSL population in the world, and nine countries increased their DSL population by more than one million new subscribers. Of the established nations, the fastest growth rates were in Australia, at 97%, and the UK, at 91%.
Seven countries have over 20% of phone lines delivering broadband services using DSL. Switzerland, Spain and the UK are likely to reach that initial target for mass market status around the end of 2005.
"As broadband DSL reaches mass market levels, supporting multiple services and delivering voice, data and video take on greater importance", says Michael Brusca, chairman of the DSL Forum. "In Belgium and France, for example, IPTV (internet protocol television) is an increasingly mainstream market driver. As a leading broadband industry body, we are committed to defining the architecture and tools the industry needs to address the broadening opportunities for broadband access. Our work is focussed on providing robust technical specifications that enable service providers to deliver enhanced, cost-effective services, including rolling out triple play more quickly and with improved quality of service (QoS)".
"IPTV is a relatively new service offering but had already won almost 1.5 million subscribers around the world in the first half of 2005, 30% of them in Hong Kong alone and a further 18% in France", said Tim Johnson of Point Topic. "All major telcos are now committed to providing IPTV services and while it is not yet a "killer application", take up is accelerating. Millions more people are accessing free video and television resources available over the internet - there are more than 1.3 million in the UK alone, spending an average of five hours each week using them. IPTV has the potential to develop into an entirely new medium because of its ability to integrate many different media and provide user-friendly interactivity."
"As IPTV is gaining as a global broadband market driver, the DSL Forum continues to keep up their pace by addressing technical capabilities and interoperability of the network to support video as well as Voice over IP and enhanced data services by building on our specified end to end architecture, remote management and automation of service selection and delivery," added Michael Brusca.
For regional pie chart, top countries for DSL subscribers and market penetration tables see http://www.dslforum.org/dslnews/pr.shtml
About the DSL Forum
The DSL Forum is tailoring DSL to meet the needs of the next generation of multi-media services and the online community. By developing new standards and embracing new applications, the forum works to streamline processes, define specifications and share best practices that set the stage for effective deployments, and explosive global DSL growth. It has set a target of 500 million broadband DSL subscribers by 2010. Established in 1994, the DSL Forum is an international industry consortium of over 200 leading service providers, equipment manufacturers and other interested parties. For more information about the DSL Forum, see http://www.dslforum.org.