Broadband subscribers to approach 500 million by 2012, says report

The number of subscribers to broadband Internet service will approach 500 million by 2012, according to a new report written by Paul Buddle Communications.

The report, “2007 Global Broadband - Broadband is Essential Infrastructure,” also finds that although there will be some factors hindering the uptake of VDSL and VDSL2, the technology will provide telcos with the ability to not only offer telephony and high-speed Internet access, but also HDTV, VoIP, and multiple and simultaneous video streams over the same copper pair.

Other findings in the report include:

  • DSL is the most common broadband access technology worldwide with more than 65 percent of the market.
  • The United States is one of only two countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where cable subscribers outnumber DSL subscribers.
  • In the United States, DSL is expected to overtake cable in 2008, and the telcos’ massive fiber deployments will vastly improve the speeds and bandwidth of the telcos broadband networks, allowing for new services such as IPTV.
  • Cable may respond with DOCSIS 3.0, an easy-to-deploy wideband answer to the telcos’ fiber networks.
  • At the moment, fewer than 5 percent of Internet users account for about 50 percent of Internet traffic. However, it is only a matter of time before the other 95 percent catch up resulting in a wild growth of local infrastructure projects over the next five years.

Research and Markets is marketing the report.

For more information, visit: www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c60239.