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DSL Dominates Global Broadband Subscriber Growth - 66% of the 281 million broadband subscribers choose DSL (16/4/2007)

In 2006, the number of DSL subscribers worldwide grew by more than 30% to reach close to 185 million at 31 December 2006. In the year, global broadband subscribers increased to more than 281 million, according to the latest statistics prepared for the international DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic. This meant that an increase of 67 million people subscribed to broadband in 2006 - with almost two-thirds of new subscribers selecting digital subscriber line technology (DSL) to deliver their broadband services.

Worldwide, DSL remains by far the most popular broadband access technology with a 65.7% market share. DSL accounts for almost 88% of all broadband subscribers in the Middle East and Africa - the fastest growing broadband region - and 81% in the European Union (EU). The EU added more than 17.6 million DSL subscribers in the year to maintain its position as the world's number one broadband and DSL region.

Of the other broadband access technologies, fibre to the home or other close location (FTTx), now delivers more than ten per cent of broadband services across the world. Less than one per cent of broadband is delivered by satellite, accounting for 784,750 subscribers.

Global Market Share of Broadband Technologies At 31 December 2006

Technology-Number of subscribers-% of subscribers

DSL 184,934,032 65.70%
Cable 62,810,493 22.31%
FTTx 29,749,662 10.57%
Other Access Technologies 3,213,646 1.14%
Satellite 784,750 0.28%
Total 281,492,583 100.00%

Source: Data provided for the DSL Forum by Point Topic.

In global terms, the USA is the world's largest broadband market at more than 57 million subscribers. China, the second largest market, is rapidly closing the gap and added 14.4 million broadband subscribers in 2006 - more than three million more than the USA - to reach 51.9 million. Thirteen countries now have over three million DSL subscribers, with a further three - the Netherlands (at 2,957,000 subscribers), Turkey (at 2,935,900) and Mexico (at 2,725,683) - fast approaching. In total, 26 nations have more than one million DSL subscribers, with Denmark, Argentina and Russia passing the figure in 2006.

"These latest broadband subscriber figures clearly show that DSL is the preferred delivery method for efficient, high speed broadband around the world," said George Dobrowski, DSL Forum chairman and president. "With the growing popularity of IPTV over DSL, we expect the DSL market to continue grow in two dimensions; more customers and higher bit rates. Through our Technical Reports and BroadbandSuite(tm) initiative, which expands our work well beyond our DSL roots, the DSL Forum is delivering the specifications needed to provide customers an excellent experience and service providers the tools for efficient operations and management."

www.dslforum.org