press release

release detail

Western Europe Holds Spot As Largest Broadband Market With 108 Million Broadband Subscribers

Global IPTV market up to nearly 24 million with 9.77% quarterly growth and strong activity across Eastern Europe

16 June 2009 – The Broadband Forum today announced the latest broadband and IPTV statistics, which show impressive growth in the face of the global economic downturn. Its report, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic (GBS database at http://point-topic.com/home/gbs/), shows that global broadband grew by 16.6 million lines in the first quarter 2009 alone, while IPTV subscribers approach 24 million, with expansion mainly in Europe and also North America.

Regional broadband growth chart

Region	2008Q1		2008Q4		2009Q1
	Total	Growth	Total	Growth	Total	Qtr Growth	Q108-Q109 Growth
Western Europe	97,573,673	4.11%	105,304,090	3.05%	108,074,172	2.63%	10.76%
South and East Asia	78,565,614	7.17%	93,397,395	3.55%	99,027,699	6.03%	26.04%
North America	81,441,788	3.62%	90,018,369	4.05%	93,502,047	3.87%	14.81%
Asia-Pacific	59,139,527	2.32%	63,237,665	2.09%	64,388,702	1.82%	8.88%
Latin America	20,528,000	8.27%	26,228,985	7.81%	27,952,833	6.57%	36.17%
Eastern Europe	18,158,103	10.06%	22,328,286	7.90%	23,613,159	5.75%	30.04%
Middle East and Africa	10,314,972	8.94%	12,076,810	5.71%	12,608,289	4.40%	22.23%
Other	18,509	17.02%	27,635	5.46%	28,500	3.13%	53.98%

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

Broadband lines in the world now top 429.2 million and the last quarter shows growth slightly higher than the previous three month period.  Twenty countries grew by 10 percent or more in that time. Of the total figure, Western Europe grew 2.63 percent to just over 108 million lines, while Eastern Europe showed a 5.75 percent improvement to reach well over 23.5 million.

Top 10 broadband countries

Country	2008Q1	2009Q1
China	71,034,820	88,088,000
USA	72,581,920	83,968,547
Japan	28,836,100	30,631,900
Germany	21,077,450	24,144,350
France	16,186,996	18,009,500
UK	16,318,300	17,661,100
South Korea	14,970,775	15,709,771
Italy	11,300,077	12,447,533
Brazil	7,949,000	10,065,200
Canada	8,859,868	9,533,500
Global Total	269,115,306	310,259,401

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

Europe headed the continued IPTV success story with almost 10 percent growth over the last quarter and a 56.2 percent year-on-year improvement.   Eastern Europe is aggressively rolling out IPTV with new services across the region, including in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Russia.

IPTV subscriptions per region

Region	2008Q1	2008Q4	2009Q1
	Total	Total	Total	Quarterly Growth	Yearly Growth
Latin America	11,183	21,495	23,467	9.17%	109.85%
Eastern Europe	553,394	955,234	1,158,673	21.30%	109.38%
North America	2,283,601	3,830,507	4,435,102	15.78%	94.22%
South and East Asia	2,086,000	3,618,000	3,990,000	10.28%	91.28%
Western Europe	7,799,449	10,367,586	11,375,200	9.72%	45.85%
Asia-Pacific	2,619,035	3,058,182	3,005,015	-1.74%	14.74%
Middle East and Africa	10,000	10,000	10,000	0.00%	0.00%

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

“Growth is high in Eastern Europe because IPTV take up is still relatively low when compared to other regions such as North America and Asia Pacific,” said John Bonsell, a Senior Analyst with Point Topic.  "This is good news for operators and subscribers, because there is plenty of potential for growth coupled with a wide range of IPTV services, so cost should remain low."
 
In terms of technology, DSL continues to be the most popular broadband access technology, although fiber grew by more than three million lines to reflect a 12.4 percent share of the market, while wireless showed a healthy proportionate increase over one million lines to a total of 5.58 million.

Technology market share

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

“This report shows that despite the economic situation the world is facing, the demand for both broadband and IPTV continues at pace as people everywhere look to improve the quality and speed of their communications,” said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum.

“The Forum continues to drive broadband innovation, and with the release of BroadbandSuite 3.0, which provides new IPTV management and fiber integration tools, we continue to ensure that the industry has all the tools and specifications it needs to optimize networks and to capture the full potential of broadband worldwide. Our capability has been enhanced by the recent union with the IP/MPLS Forum, which gives us a much greater end-to-end capability to serve the industry.”

For further information about the Broadband Forum and BroadbandSuite 3.0 mentioned here, visit www.broadband-forum.org.

- ENDS –

For further information please contact Chrissie Walker or Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 115 948 6901 or by email to chrissie@bcspr.co.uk or brian@bcspr.co.uk.

About the Broadband Forum
The Broadband Forum mission is to develop the full potential of broadband.  With the recent union with the IP/MPLS Forum, the Broadband Forum is now the central body for next generation IP network specifications. This organization, comprising around 200 members of most of the world’s leading service providers, equipment manufacturers, chip vendors and other key organizations, defines and facilitates next generation networks for local broadband access, mobile backhaul, business services, IPTV, gaming and other applications, and is poised to address further developments as they arise.  The Broadband Forum’s formal BroadbandSuite™ Release Program, Technical Reports and specifications are publicly available at www.broadband-forum.org.