Posted: 10th Jun, 2004 By: MarkJ
According to the latest statistics from the DSL Forum, Europe (including the accession countries) is now the second largest xDSL global region holding 28.18% of the world's subscribers. The UK placed tenth in the global list with 2.2m xDSL lines:
BROADBAND DSL ACHIEVES RECORD BREAKING GROWTH FOR THE THIRD CONSECUTIVE QUARTER
Broadband DSL won another 9.5 million subscribers around the world in its third consecutive record-breaking quarter ending 31 March 2004. Now 73.4 million globally subscribe to broadband DSL, according to the latest figures prepared for the international DSL Forum by telecommunications analyst firm, Point Topic.
"This is the biggest ever quarterly addition to the global DSL subscriber figures, representing growth of nearly 15%. It is also the third consecutive quarter to produce a record-breaking subscriber increase - this time almost double that of the same period in 2003. This is strong evidence of the growing popularity of high-speed broadband DSL connections among businesses and consumers for email, shopping, online entertainment services, telecommuting, and more," said Tom Starr, president of the DSL Forum.
Three countries represented more than half of the new subscribers:
* China added 2.85 million in the quarter and now has almost 14 million subscribers to DSL services - the largest DSL population in the world.
* The USA added 1.18 million - a growth of 13% - significantly closing the gap on Japan, the second largest DSL country.
* France was the fastest growing of the major DSL countries in the quarter adding 1.07 million, a growth rate of 35%.
13 countries now have more than one million broadband DSL subscribers and 16 countries have more than 10% of phone lines delivering DSL services.
Countries with over 1 million subscribers, 31 March 2004
1 China 13,995,000
2 Japan 11,196,830
3 USA 10,584,281
4 South Korea 6,580,923
5 Germany 4,840,180
6 France 4,116,000
7 Italy 2,875,000
8 Taiwan 2,590,000
9 Canada 2,340,699
10 UK 2,272,270
11 Spain 1,947,313
12 Brazil 1,160,175
13 Netherlands 1,118,000
Market penetration figures indicate that the popularity of DSL in Asia Pacific continues to be strong. In 2002, South Korea was the first country in the world to achieve the DSL Forum's goal of mass-market status - 20% DSL penetration of phone lines. The latest figures confirm that South Korea maintains its global lead of DSL market penetration, at 28.3% of all phone lines, and 6.85 million subscribers at the end of March 2004. Taiwan, ranked second in the world by penetration, was just 0.2% away from mass-market classification in the period.
Over the quarter, no less than six countries: France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland, achieved more than 10% of total phone lines providing DSL services - half way to mass-market status. Belgium overtook Hong Kong to become the first European country to enter the global top three by penetration. Finland also overtook Singapore in this category. Israel leads the DSL market share among the countries of the Middle East and Africa, with 40,000 new subscribers, raising the penetration figure to 14.5 per cent.
Top 10 Countries by penetration of DSL per 100 phone lines
DSL per 100 phone lines
1 South Korea 28.3
2 Taiwan 19.8
3 Belgium 16.7
4 Hong Kong 16.1
5 Japan 15.7
6 Israel 14.5
7 Denmark 14.2
8 Finland 13.6
9 Singapore 13.4
10 France 12.1
The European Union, including the new accession states, is now fast approaching Asia Pacific's global market share, accounting for just over one per cent fewer subscribers. With for 28.18% of global subscribers, the European Union added 3.36 million subscribers in the quarter, an increase that accounted for more than one-third of the total new subscribers worldwide.