The worldwide fiber broadband subscriber numbers will
more than double in 2016 to 142 million subscribers, from 69.6 million in 2011,
according to ABI Research.
The Asia Pacific region is seeing strong subscriber
growth, due in particular to the increasing number of subscribers in China.
About 17 million Chinese subscribers have been added since the second quarter
of 2010.
The Asia-Pacific broadband market is sure to continue
growing in the medium-term since low broadband penetration in countries such as
China and India leaves plenty of room for broadband growth,” said research
analyst Khin Sandi Lynn.
The number of customers using high bandwidth services
such as Internet video and online gaming is growing around the world. Exploding
IP traffic generated by these services is putting service providers under
pressure to handle the bandwidth demand.
Broadband operators are expanding fiber broadband coverage which can best serve these
bandwidth-hungry services. As an example, China Telecom is deploying fiber
optic broadband aiming to serve 100 million households and 30 million
fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers by the end of 2015.
There were more than 539 million fixed broadband
subscribers globally at the end of second quarter. That is an 8 percent
increase from the same quarter in 2010. Customer net addition is stronger in
emerging markets,” said Jason Blackwell, practice director, ABI research.
At present, North America is the region with the highest
fiber optic broadband penetration followed by Asia-Pacific. Extending fiber
broadband coverage not only increases speed but also allows the roll out of
services including video on demand (VOD) and IPTV.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
