FREMONT, Calif. -- Almost 28 million more homes and businesses got wise to the benefits of broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) in 2003 by subscribing to an always available, high-speed connection over the telephone line. This growth of 77.8% meant that the total number of DSL subscribers around the world reached 63.84 million to end the year 2003, according to figures prepared by industry analyst firm, Point Topic for the international DSL Forum. More than 11 million of these subscribers are in North America - 9.1 million in the USA and 2.1 million in Canada.

DSL Forum's President Tom Starr said: "In the last three months of 2003 more than nine million additional customers signed up to the world's favorite broadband technology - the strongest ever quarterly growth. 16.9% growth in the 4th quarter is a level of performance any other sector would have been glad to achieve in a full year. Our DSL market delivered that in just three months."

North America added more than three million new DSL subscribers during 2003, 2.66 million of them in the USA, making it the third leading growth country in the world last year. Growth in the USA was fastest in the last six months of 2003, when 1.9 million homes and businesses signed up to broadband DSL - 75% of the total annual growth. Canada, with more than 440,000 new DSL subscribers in the year was the eleventh largest growth country in the world.

Table 1: Global Ranking (31 Dec 2003)

Even Tim Johnson from the analyst firm Point Topic that specializes in the broadband market, found his prediction for the year-end was exceeded by almost two million subscribers. "China is storming ahead and now has the largest DSL population in the world at 10.95 million, even excluding Hong Kong," he said.

Globally, the regional market share of DSL subscribers is changing as China drives the growth in Asia and most countries in Western Europe accelerate towards the DSL Forum target of 20% of phone lines delivering DSL services by the end of 2005.

At 10.9% penetration of phone lines, DSL services in Canada are halfway to the DSL Forum's mass-market target of 20% by year-end 2005. The USA reached almost 5% phone line penetration at the end of 2003.

Globally, not even mobile phones experienced the exponential growth of DSL. The growth figures in 2003, which outstrip those of the heyday of mobile phone sales, indicate that DSL will continue to extend its lead as the world's number one broadband technology in 2004. As an even wider variety of DSL services become available to meet next generation requirements, the Forum expects consumers and businesses alike to increasingly recognize that broadband DSL is becoming as essential as electricity.

"We are confident that the industry is well on the way to achieving the DSL Forum's global target of 200 million DSL subscribers - 20% of all phone lines - by the end of 2005. Our technical and marketing teams continue their work - developing guidelines and best practice, and educating end users - to accelerate growth and to ensure that DSL maintains its position as the world's leading broadband technology," Tom Starr explains.

DSL Forum

Point Topic Ltd.