New figures have shown that broadband subscribers throughout the world have now passed the 600 million mark, indicating growth in the market with more than 100 million new lines added in less than 18 months. The figures show growth of 2.7% in the first quarter of 2012, with an annual increase of 11.48%.
The figures were released by the Broadband Forum and prepared by analysts Point Topic and shows that Asia continues to dominate growth, with 262,080,147 subscribers of which 8,575,397 are new lines. This represents a growth rate of 3.38% in Q1 for the region and 15.19% for the year.
The new was announced at CommunicAsia in Singapore and also shown strong increases in hybrid filter and FTTH deployments. IPTV also grew by 3.8m taking the worldwide figure to more than 65.6m. China continues to lead the way in Asia on both broadband subscribers and IPTV.
Overall, demand for IPTV now has 65.6m subscribers, which shows an increase of 3.8m in Q1; this is again being led by the Asian market, with China leading the way, adding three times as many subscribers than any other country.
However, whilst it's thought that China will continue to forge ahead, the US and France have also indicated an increase in growth and good numbers.
Whilst the top 20 countries for broadband take-up has seen little in the way of change, Russia, Brazil and India have strong growth rates and the Ukraine and Turkey also show an increase in growth.
"This is another significant milestone in an exciting arena that shows no sign of slowing down,” Robin Mersh, Broadband Forum's CEO said, "it is just 18 months since we celebrated the 500 million subscriber watershed and even less time since the IPTV subscribers reached 50 million – yet in both cases growth is still accelerating.”
"It is especially rewarding to be making this announcement in Asia, which has contributed so much to fuelling this phenomenal success. I am also particularly pleased to see how exceptionally well fiber is doing, a clear indication of the importance of our continued efforts in testing and certification of G-PON.”