According to the Point Topic data released by the Broadband Forum, globally, the number of broadband subscribers increased by 50 million in 2012 to reach 643.77 million by the end of December 2012.
The broadband segment registered 8.6 per cent annual growth in the year 2012. The growth in the broadband segment was driven by the increasing demand for superfast broadband, with fibre, particularly fibre-to-the-home (FTTx/VDSL2) hybrid deployments playing a key role. The data collected by Broadband Forum shows that the number of FTTx (including VDSL and VDSLS2) users reached 114.44 million at the end 2012. Further, the number of DSL (including ADSL, ADSL2+ and SDSL), cable modem and FTTH users stood at 353.99 million, 115.23 million and 115.23 million, respectively.
Broadband Forum points out that the FTTx is gaining ground over other technologies, including the traditional digital subscriber line (DSL) which continues to dominate broadband segment with 56.95 per cent market share. It is followed by modem and FTTx which have market share of 19.19 and 17.78 per cent, respectively. Further, the proportion of broadband subscribers using IPTV service at the end of 2012 stood at 11.8 per cent.
Also, at the end of December 2012, the total number of broadband subscribers in the countries like China, US and Japan stood at 178.25 million, 95.2 million and 37.17 million, respectively. For the same period, other countries including Germany, France and Brazil had a broadband subscriber base of 29.83 million, 23.04 million and 19.48 million, respectively. Further, at the end of December 2012, India and Russia reported a total subscriber base of 15.14 million and 22.99 million, respectively.
