Asia fastest growing region in the world for fixed broadband

Growth of fixed broadband globally is at its best whilst rate of increase in Asia is the fastest apart from the base widening further.

This as well as several other key findings was revealed by the Broadband Forum (BF) yesterday at the CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore.

With an increase of over 15.2 million subscribers in the first three months of this year, fixed broadband grew by 2.9%. This was the biggest quarterly increase in the last two years and representing an annual growth rate of 11.93%, the BF said.

“Asia remains the fastest growing region for broadband with 16.21% - almost double that of the Americas,” the BF Chief Executive Officer Robin Mersh told journalists attending the CommunicAsia 2011, Asia’s biggest IT and telecom show at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre.

“Asia’s fixed broadband subscribers now make up 42% of the global total, up from 40% last year, with Europe and the Americas behind with 30% and 25% respectively. We are also seeing emerging markets make strides, with the Middle East and Latin America advancing quickly,” Mersh added.

He also said broadband is showing healthy double digit growth and has in fact increased its growth rate this year. “This indicates how vital it has become to businesses, residential consumers and countries,” the BF CEO noted.

The amazing growth in Asia however was qualified by Mersh saying that in some markets such as India the high increases however were from a lower base. Using the latest findings Mersh at a presentation on Wednesday at CommunicAsia will share the latest standards and best practices to help service providers propel the market forward even faster.

According to the BF, the strong Asian growth is due in large part to the continuing success in broadband in China with 42% of the net additions to the total global broadband subscriber numbers coming from China and its territories (the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau) in the first three months of 2011.

Commenting on the global broadband growth and the changing country performances, CEO of Point Topic Oliver Johnson said: “There is increasingly keen competition to be in the global Top Ten of broadband countries. As India and Mexico jostle to break into the charts it is likely that Italy will drop out, probably before the end of the year.” IPTV also shows exceptional growth rates with an increase of over 34% in the 12 months to the end of March 2011, based on the data prepared for the Broadband Forum by analyst firm Point Topic.

IPTV has continued to grow well, with 34% in the 12 months to 31st March 2011, a 6.4% increase in the quarter. Total IPTV subscriber numbers have now reached 48.2 million at the end of the first quarter 2011. France still heads the table of Top Ten Countries with China a close second and Taiwan also on the leader board in ninth place.

Europe continues to be the largest region with over 21 million subscribers, but Asia is catching up fast with 18 million and both China and Taiwan showing growth of over 50%. Of the 2.9M new subscribers added this year (Q1 2011), 1.4M came from Asia.

In terms of access technologies, fiber, including various hybrid DSL/fiber rollouts, is by far the fastest growing with over 20% increase in its subscriber base in the last 12 months. DSL and cable are still growing and – for the first time – we are able to include figures for fixed wireless access (FWA) as a technology which is beginning to take off.

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The Broadband Forum continues to work towards the adoption of new technologies and standards by creating the specifications and toolkits needed to help service providers and vendors expedite their programs. With a wide range of work in hand to help the industry, including IPv6, LTE, G-PON and the Connected Home, new developments in 2011 have included:

nBroadbandSuite 4.1 – a collection of tools and techniques for enhancing service and support of the Connected Home

nNew White Papers

    MR-235, Considerations in Broadband Architecture Moving to Fixed Mobile Convergence

    MR-239, Broadband Forum Value Proposition for Connected Home

nBroadbandSuite 4.0 – the IPv6 Toolkit to help service providers integrate IPv6 addressing protocol into existing network and device management platforms

34% growth in broadband in Sri Lanka

The Broadband Forum yesterday said growth in fixed broadband in Sri Lanka was 34% year on year as at end first quarter of 2011.

As per data made available to the Daily FT, the end first quarter 2011 performance is high in comparison to 7% growth a year earlier.

The high growth however is on a low base, as similar to some of the other fast growing countries in rest of Asia.