Posted: 24th Mar, 2011 By: MarkJ

The Broadband Forum and Point Topic report that the world added
56 Million new broadband ISP subscribers during 2010, taking the global total to a staggering
523,066,022 at the end of Q4-2010. This represents an
annual growth rate of 12%, which is broadly in line with the previous two years.
Asia (184,591,415) is still on course to become the
largest broadband region in the world, powered by China, and is likely to overtake Europe (188,881,105) during 2011. Meanwhile the Americas (North and South) account for 133,861,702 of the total, with the Middle East and Africa trailing on 15,683,800.
In terms of
internet access technology, superfast fibre optic ( FTTH ) broadband lines are growing fast and now serve 72 million customers with a market share of 13.82% (up from 13.31% in Q2-2010). However DSL ( ADSL , ADSL2+ ) continues to dominate with 63.36% of the market, which is down from 64.76% in Q2-2010.
Meanwhile Cable Modem (DOCSIS) operators, such as Virgin Media UK, managed to grow slightly to 20.34% from 20.22% in Q2-2010. Satellite broadband solutions saw a significant resurgence, jumping from 0.36% in Q2 to 1.12% in Q4. By contrast Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) barely budged on 1.36% (up from 1.35% in Q2).
Global IPTV subscriptions (e.g. BT Vision) also saw a record 34.6% growth in 2010, with Europe (20,717,682 subscribers, +24.91% growth) being number one for related internet television (TV) services. Asia saw a strong growth rate of +51.01%, yet its total subscriber figures were lower at 16,365,767. The Americas held 8,062,478 with a +31.43% growth rate, while the Middle East and Africa had just 218,500, albeit on a top growth of +63.48%.
The UK itself only has a tiny IPTV market, while deployments of "
true" fibre optic broadband lines are presently too meagre to even be able to show a presence on the Broadband Forum's statistics. This could begin to change by the end of this year, although most of the country will only get a VDSL2+ solution through FTTC, which isn't counted as a true fibre optic connection.