Posted: 02nd Feb, 2010 By: MarkJ

New research from
Informa Telecoms & Media predicts that global fixed line broadband ISP subscriptions will reach 500 Million this year. Much of the growth will come from developing parts of Asia (e.g. China and India), which have yet to become saturated like many wealthier western countries.
Latest figures indicate that seven of the top 20 countries by fixed-broadband subscriptions could be classified as emerging markets. The number of net additions in each of these countries was up substantially year-on-year, while those of the world's largest developed markets were either flat or down.
Rob Gallagher, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said:
"Overall the number of net new fixed-broadband subscriptions grew in 2009 to over 480 million, largely as a result of accelerating growth in emerging markets and we expect this number to reach 500 million this year. China, Russia, Mexico, India and Vietnam were among the countries that recorded the greatest leaps in fixed-broadband subscription numbers last year.
Given that about four out of five households do not have broadband in these markets, there is still much room for growth. We forecast that these underserved markets will contribute the bulk of the next 100 million subscriptions by 2014."
The UK placed 6th in the list with a total of 18,033,300 fixed broadband subscriptions; for the end of September 2009. France came 5th with 19,306,400, then Germany (25,114,300), Japan (31,240,000), the USA (82,846,600) and top is China on 91,348,000.