Informa Telecoms & Media reveals world broadband

Released 19th March
Informa Telecoms & Media announces the results of itslatest research into broadband and multichannel TVsubscription numbers. Fibre-to-the-x subscriptionsapproach 50 million; IPTV nudges 20 million.

According to research being concluded this month, globalfixed broadband subscriptions stood at 422 million atthe end of 2008, adding nearly 68 million subscriptionsin the year and 16 million in the final quarter.

The biggest access technology remains DSL (65% of thetotal), but FTTx (11%) registered its biggest in yeargain to date, adding over 11 million subscriptions -almost exactly the same number as cable broadband (21%)- now stands over 48 million.

The growth of FTTx is part explained by robust growthin Asia-Pacific: the region added 20% more subscriptionsin 2008 than in 2007. In addition, nine of the world's10 largest FTTx operators are in the region.

Western Europe has seen broadband growth stagnate, asall but five of its 30 countries now exceed a householdpenetration level of 50% and 20 countries enjoypenetration of over 60%.

China, where broadband subscriptions grew by 21% over2008 to reach 82 million subscriptions, passed the USAmid-year to become the world's largest fixed broadbandmarket, though it still has a household penetrationlevel of below 20%.

The IPTV total stood at 19.96 million at the end of 2008.Even by the standard of its own past record, growth wassteady but not spectacular, registering net additions of7.5 million. What is significant is the fact that of thefour main multichannel TV platforms, IPTV and digitalterrestrial (DTT) are increasing their share of the marketand now hold 10% and 3% of the global market, respectively.

Speaking ahead of next week's IPTV World Forum, JulianHerbert, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Mediasaid, "It is a fair observation that IPTV has not made thesort of inroads into broadband homes which operators mighthave expected, but it is wrong to declare that the conceptis doomed to fail. In markets where the bandwidth isavailable and the marketing and pricing are attractive,IPTV is attracting big volumes of new customers and helpingoperators to improve retention rates and increase fixedline ARPU. Look at operators like AT&T - over 800,000 netadds in 2008 - or Free and France Telecom in France, PWCC in Hong Kong or Portugal Telecom: all are growing theirmarket shares strongly in competitive TV markets".

The research, based on a continuous programme of researchcovering 730 fixed broadband (xDSL, cable broadband, FTTx,LAN, satellite and fixed wireless) operators in 160countries and nearly 100 IPTV operators in 50 countries,will be presented in an opening address at the IPTV WorldForum at Olympia, London, next week.