DSL Forum: Europe's Hot for DSL

FREMONT, Calif. -- DSL – the world’s most popular broadband technology – added over 30 million subscribers in the 12 months to 30 June 2004 according to the latest data produced for the DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic, reaching a global total of 78 million. That growth in DSL subscribers was more than double that of the other broadband access technologies in the year. Total broadband subscribers grew by almost 55% to over 123 million in the same period.

The European Union (EU) has narrowly taken over from Asia Pacific as the number one DSL region, with a total of over 23 million subscribers, around 11 million of them joining the DSL community in the last 12 months.

DSL made considerable progress in North America, the only region to retain cable modem dominance, achieving a 48% subscriber increase, significantly more than the 31% growth in cable and other technologies. In the USA, which has comfortably the world’s largest total broadband population, DSL has seen a 3% increase in market share with nearly 4 million new subscribers. In Canada, DSL subscribers now account for 48% of the total broadband market. South and East Asia was the fastest growing region for DSL subscribers in the 12 months, with a 110% growth, while the Middle East and Africa showed a 107% increase, and Latin America a rise of 104%. In terms of market penetration, the DSL Forum’s first stage target for a global mass market for broadband DSL – 20% of all phone lines – has already been achieved in both South Korea (28.66%) and, more recently, Taiwan (20.76%). Five countries are currently at 17% or above: Hong Kong; Iceland; Belgium; Israel and Japan. The EU’s new status as the largest DSL region is reflected in sizeable increases in penetration in Portugal (10.7% per 100 lines) and in the Netherlands (8.44%).

China now leads the world in delivering DSL broadband services, climbing up from fourth position. Almost 13 million subscribe to broadband DSL in that country, an increase of nearly seven million in one year (119.4% growth). The UK, with more than 1.65 million new subscribers, has moved up from eleventh to eighth position, and Australia enters the Top 20 DSL countries list for the first time after seeing a growth of nearly 147% in one year. A total of 13 countries now have over one million broadband DSL subscribers; 11 have over two million and three – China, Japan and the USA – have over ten million each.

Tom Starr, president of the DSL Forum said: "The DSL success story just goes on getting better. With our new DSL Anywhere white paper offering service providers technical options to deliver this robust, reliable broadband access technology to all of their residential and business customers, no matter where they are located, the benefits of broadband DSL can be enjoyed by many millions more. There is no question but that this is the DSL decade."

Point Topic Ltd.

DSL Forum