Fibre Overtakes Cable to Become Worlds 2nd Biggest Broadband ISP Tech

The latest Point Topic and Broadband Forum study for Q3-2012 has revealed that the world is now home to a total of 635.9 million broadband subscribers. But most interesting of all is how fibre optic (FTTx) based ISP technologies have overtaken cable (e.g. Virgin Media) to become the second largest method of internet connectivity after DSL (ADSL etc.).

Overall global broadband subscribers grew by 2% (54 million) between Q2 – Q3 2012 (down from 2.7% in Q1-2012 and 2.1% in Q2-2012) and new fibre optic based connections accounted for an impressive 26 million of that figure (48%).

In total fibre optic services account for 125 million broadband subscribers around the world, while cable holds 121 million and pure copper / DSL services remain the dominant form of access at 367 million.

Oliver Johnson, CEO of PointTopic, said:

“As the world gradually emerges from financial turmoil the continued growth of broadband has been a steady light in the storm. We won’t see the triple digit growth of old but many markets are entering a phase of consolidation and consumer multi-service alignment.”

Saturation in mature markets is naturally slowing broadband adoption, although fibre optic and hybrid fibre (FTTC etc.) services have also been growing their market share by cannibalising customers from existing copper DSL connections.