According to the Broadband Forum, the global broadband subscriber base grew by 40 million to reach 678.6 million in 2013.
While copper-based technologies continue to dominate broadband connections, fiber-based connections including fibre to the x (FTTx) and very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line are the fast growing technologies. The Broadband Forum states that fiber-based connections grew by 17.6 per cent during the year, compared to the 6.1 per cent growth rate for all broadband connections. Meanwhile copper-based connections continued to decline by 1.6 per cent in 2013 ? the only decline among the broadband connection technologies.
The global Internet Protocol television (IPTV) subscriber base meanwhile grew by 17 million during 2013 to 96 million. During the year, about 14.1 per cent of fixed broadband subscribers took up IPTV service. Asia Pacific region continues to support 50 per cent of FTTx subscribers.
The Broadband Forum points out that in 2013 the broadband market was led by China with 192 million subscribers. In fact, the country added over three million new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2013. Japan, South Korea and India were the only other Asian nations among the top 10 countries by subscribers. However, emerging markets ? including Indonesia and Sri Lanka ? dominated the top 10 list of countries by percentage subscriber growth in 2013.
