The Broadband Forum has today announced the latest broadband statistics (based on figures from Point Topic) covering the period Q2 2009 (April-June) which shows growth of 12.9 million broadband lines bringing the total to 445 million. IPTV also saw 11% growth bringing numbers to 26.9 million with a substantial 54% increase in the Asian market to nearly 3 million subscribers.
Growth has slowed in some regions- Western Europe continuing to fall from 4.11% growth in Q1 2008 to just 1.64% in Q2 2009. Most regions also have a decline in growth based on figures from the last quarter although Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific are bucking the trend with growth increasing.
The league table of top 10 broadband countries, which make up over 70% of all broadband connections, ranks the UK as 6th, no change from Q1 2009, with 17.8 million broadband connections. China is edging ever closer to the 100 million mark at 93.5 million subscribers, a 23% increase from last years figures.
| Country | Q2 2008 | Q2 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Number of broadband connections ranked by country
In terms of access technology, DSL maintains it's dominant position with 64% of the market, cable at 21%, fibre 13% and Wireless and Satellite/Other each having 1%. The growth of IPTV services is demanding higher bandwidth broadband, increasing the demand for fibre based access services.
"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.
"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."
George Dobrowski, (Chairman and President) Broadband Forum
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UK may be 6th in this table, but the majority of UK connections are less than 2 meg through obsolete copper phone lines, which is hardly broadband in this day and age when other countries are getting gigabit connections through fibre. The table shows how important broadband is becoming to people in this country, and should pave the way for investment in getting fibre to every home, instead of paying fatcat wages or shareholders. Think to the future generations instead of the present profits. Don't kill the golden goose before it lays the eggs to bring recovery to the UK economy.