Global Fixed Line Broadband Revenues Reach GBP30 Billion in Q1 2012

ABI Research has estimated that the worldwide fixed line broadband market, driven by demand for superfast fibre optic based connections, managed to generate service revenue of £30 Billion ($47.7bn) in Q1-2012 and reached a total of 586.7 Million subscribers. That’s despite an apparent “surge” in Mobile Broadband adoption.

The short summary claims that much of this growth is being driven by a new generation of fibre optic (FTTH etc.) based superfast broadband services, which are said to be “witnessing the fastest adoption” as ISPs continue to boost deployment to “satisfy the speed demand“. Meanwhile higher quality internet content, such as video streaming and IPTV services, are helping to support the “high demand for high-speed broadband access“.

As usual Asia-Pacific, which added almost 7 million subscribers in the quarter, continued to be the world’s fastest growing region. China alone has already allocated 80% of its $303 billion infrastructure investment for broadband development and plans to hit 100 million fibre optic subscribers by the end of 2015.

Khin Sandi Lynn, ABI Analyst, said:

“Being driven by broadband deployments in China and India, the Asia-Pacific broadband market is expected to grow faster than other regions, generating service revenue of $92.2 billion in 2017.”

Last July 2011 ABI predicted that the total number of global subscribers to superfast fibre optic services was expected to “more than double” from 69.6 Million in 2011 to 142 Million by 2016. A somewhat better study from Point Topic (here) recently revealed that fibre optic (FTTH / FTTP) and hybrid fibre (FTTC) services now accounted for 16.7% of the world broadband market (technology share).