The number of broadband lines worldwide grew by 17.4 million in the third quarter of 2011 to a total 581.3 million, according to latest figures from Point Topic for the Broadband Forum. This is the highest quarterly additions since early 2009 and represents annual growth of 12.9 percent in the total base. DSL remained the dominant access technology with 61.5 percent of all lines, after adding more subscribers than any other technology in Q3. However, in percentage terms both FTTH and FTTx/hybrid technologies showed the highest growth at 8 percent overall, compared to 2.2 percent for cable and 2 percent for DSL. FTTx added just under 19 million lines in Q3, more than double the number in the same period last year, bringing its market share to 16 percent, just behind cable at 19.5 percent. Asia was the biggest geographic market and showed the strongest growth, up 4.3 percent quarterly to 246.06 million lines. This was driven by China which added over 8 million lines in Q3 for a total 152.5 million at the end of September 2011. Europe grew 2.3 percent sequentially to 173.3 million lines­, and the Americas were up 1.9 percent to 144.53 million. Meanwhile the IPTV market grew by 6.1 percent to 54.4 million users. This was led by growth in France (the biggest market for IPTV), China and Russia; the latter entered the top ten markets for IPTV for the first time, in seventh place.

Source: Telecom Paper.

Source: TeleGeography

Source: Telecom Paper

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) today released its Quarterly Report on the Irish telecommunications market for the period 1st April to 30th June 2011 (Q2).  

Total quarterly electronic communications revenues (€961 million) increased marginally on the previous quarter (+1.3%). Ireland is ranked 1st out of 20 countries for business calls, 54.8% cheaper than the average of the 20 countries benchmarked. Total voice traffic (fixed and mobile) declined by 0.7% to just over 4.45 billion voice minutes this quarter.

Broadband subscriptions increased only slightly this quarter (by 3,859). As narrowband subscriptions fell by a larger amount (by 6,495), total Internet subscriptions (1,662,471) declined very slightly this quarter. The fixed broadband per capita penetration rate reached 22.8%. The total broadband per capita penetration rate (including mobile broadband) was 35.5%. Consumer adoption of higher (advertised) broadband speeds continues, with 12.5% of all broadband subscriptions now in the >10Mbps category compared to 7.3% this time last year.

Mobile subscriptions (including mobile broadband) stood at 5,377,188, down from 5,412,551 in the previous quarter. This quarter experienced the highest number of mobile numbers ported (123,646) since the introduction in mobile number portability in 2003. It is estimated that approximately 75% of TV homes in Ireland received a digital TV service by September 2011.

The full report (ComReg document 11/66) is available on the ComReg website.

Source: ComReg

Wireless broadband subscriptions in OECD countries exceeded half a billion by the end of 2010, an increase of more than 10 percent on June 2010, according to data from the OECD. Fixed broadband subscriptions reached 300 million, but growth slowed to 6 percent year-on-year. This reflects higher broadband penetration and market saturation in some countries. The Netherlands and Switzerland lead with 38.1 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, followed by Denmark with 37.7 and Norway with 34.6.

Fibre subscriptions continue to grow and account for 12.3 percent of all fixed broadband connections, while DSL is still the most widely used technology with 57.6 percent, followed by cable with 29.4 percent. Leading countries in fibre are Japan with 58 percent, Korea with 55 percent, Slovak Republic with 29 percent and Sweden with 26 percent. Korea is the leading country for wireless broadband subscriptions, with 89.8 per 100 inhabitants, followed by Finland with 84.8, Sweden with 82.9 and Norway with 79.9. This compares to an OECD average of 41.6 and a total of under 512 million.

The factors in the sector's continuing health include long contract durations of mobile operators, the popularity of bundled offers of television, mobile and fixed telephony, and the fact that communication services are perceived as non-discretionary spending items. Households looking to cut spending seem to be economising in other areas. The prevalence of bundled services has also played a role in this shift by reinforcing customer loyalty and reducing churn. Bundled services may benefit consumers by offering lower prices and gains such as unified billing, integrated services or customer assistance. The complexity of some bundled offers makes them hard to interpret and poses additional issues for consumers trying to compare prices and make informed decisions. In addition, bundling may make it harder for users to switch providers or drop a service.

Source: TelecomPaper
 

Wireless broadband subscriptions in OECD countries exceeded half a billion by the end of 2010, an increase of more than 10 percent on June 2010, according to data from the OECD. Fixed broadband subscriptions reached 300 million, but growth slowed to 6 percent year-on-year. This reflects higher broadband penetration and market saturation in some countries. The Netherlands and Switzerland lead with 38.1 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, followed by Denmark with 37.7 and Norway with 34.6.

Fibre subscriptions continue to grow and account for 12.3 percent of all fixed broadband connections, while DSL is still the most widely used technology with 57.6 percent, followed by cable with 29.4 percent. Leading countries in fibre are Japan with 58 percent, Korea with 55 percent, Slovak Republic with 29 percent and Sweden with 26 percent. Korea is the leading country for wireless broadband subscriptions, with 89.8 per 100 inhabitants, followed by Finland with 84.8, Sweden with 82.9 and Norway with 79.9. This compares to an OECD average of 41.6 and a total of under 512 million.

The factors in the sector's continuing health include long contract durations of mobile operators, the popularity of bundled offers of television, mobile and fixed telephony, and the fact that communication services are perceived as non-discretionary spending items. Households looking to cut spending seem to be economising in other areas. The prevalence of bundled services has also played a role in this shift by reinforcing customer loyalty and reducing churn. Bundled services may benefit consumers by offering lower prices and gains such as unified billing, integrated services or customer assistance. The complexity of some bundled offers makes them hard to interpret and poses additional issues for consumers trying to compare prices and make informed decisions. In addition, bundling may make it harder for users to switch providers or drop a service.

Source: TelecomPaper

The government of Qatar has established the Qatar National Broadband Network Company (Q.NBN) with the aim of deploying passive infrastructure to accelerate the rollout of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) access for consumers and businesses across the country, the secretary general of telecoms regulator ictQATAR, Hessa Al-Jaber, announced. The state-led Q.NBN project is being developed in partnership with incumbent Qatar Telecom and second national operator licensee Vodafone Qatar, aiming to cover 95% of the population with FTTH by 2015.

Source: TeleGeography

Portuguese regulatory authority Autoridade Nacional de Comunicacoes (ANACOM) has announced that the country ended 2010 with a total of 2.075 million broadband subscribers, up 11.3% from 2.022 million a year earlier. In terms of access technology, ADSL continues to provide the lion’s share of connections, with 1,069,489 at end-2010, equivalent to 51.5% of the broadband market. In contrast, cable services now account for 852,302 connections (41.1%), up 13.6% year-on-year. The remaining 7.4% of subscribers (153,551) were made up by fixed wireless access (FWA, including WiMAX) and fibre-optic (FTTx) customer accounts. Of these ‘others’ ANACOM claims that fibre-to-the-home/building (FTTH/FTTB) has witnessed the biggest surge, and now accounts for around 130,000 connections. During 2010 triple-play (fixed voice telephony, broadband, television) subscriptions increased by 52.2% to 169,599, with the increasing prominence of FTTx and cable infrastructure spearheading growth.

Although 51 companies were authorised to provide fixed internet access services during 2010, only 35 were actually in operation. During 2010 Portugal Telecom’s (PT's) wireline retail division Portugal Telecom Comunicacoes (PTC) remained the country's leading ADSL provider, with a 46.8% share of the fixed broadband market. Former PT subsidiary Zon Multimedia heads the list of cable-based operators, claiming a 33.0% market share at the same date.

Source: TeleGeography

Japanese multiservice operator (MSO) Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) added a net 111,000 broadband internet subscribers last year to lift its total to 1.696 million from 1.585 million at end-2009.

The MSO also reported solid growth of its voice telephony services, with users increasing from 1.763 million to 1.971 million over the same period. In total, J:COM ended the year with 6.360 million revenue generating units (RGUs) for cable TV, internet and/or telephony services, up 6.9% year-on-year, while the bundling ration (i.e. average number of services taken by one subscribed household) rose to 1.86 from 1.82 previously. The operator’s TV services continue to be popular: J:COM closed out the year with 2.691 million basic TV subscribers, including 2.687 million digital TV customers, up from 2.598 million in December 2009.

Source: TeleGeography

According to data published by Associacao Brasileira de Telecomunicacoes (Telebrasil), the total number of fixed and mobile broadband accesses in the country reached 34.2 million lines at the end of last year, up 71% year-on-year. Put another way, around 14.2 million new connections were activated last year, Telebrasil reports, with customers signing up to one or more of the available access platforms on offer – i.e. fixed broadband (DSL, cable etc), or 3G mobile. Indeed, in the latter segment the association reported a massive 257% y-o-y rise in connections from four million to 14.6 million, while fixed connections increased from 11.4 million to 13.6 million.

Source: TeleGeography

According to data published by Associacao Brasileira de Telecomunicacoes (Telebrasil), the total number of fixed and mobile broadband accesses in the country reached 34.2 million lines at the end of last year, up 71% year-on-year. Put another way, around 14.2 million new connections were activated last year, Telebrasil reports, with customers signing up to one or more of the available access platforms on offer – i.e. fixed broadband (DSL, cable etc), or 3G mobile. Indeed, in the latter segment the association reported a massive 257% y-o-y rise in connections from four million to 14.6 million, while fixed connections increased from 11.4 million to 13.6 million.

Source: TeleGeography

As of 30 September 2010 France was home to a total of 20.8 million high speed and ultra-high speed internet subscriptions, an increase of about 360,000 over the previous quarter, the regulator Arcep reports. Over one year, the national growth rate was approximately 8% it said, equivalent to around 1.6 million connections.

Of the total around 20.4 million were classed as high speed subscriptions, including 19.47 million ADSL subscriptions (93% of high speed and ultra-high speed subscriptions), 960,000 for other technologies and 420,000 ultra-high speed broadband subscribers – up 55,000 over the previous quarter. The watchdog counted around 100,000 FTTH or FTTB subscribers in its September 2010 total; it defines ultra-high speed services as those offering a peak downstream speed of over 50Mbps and a top upstream speed of more than 5Mbps. The remaining 320,000 were hybrid fibre-coaxial lines (HFC), up 45,000 quarter-on-quarter.

75,000 residential customers in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch have been migrated to upgraded network systems, TestraClear has announced. The upgrade to DOCSIS3 means that the new network systems are capable of providing download speeds of 100Mbps. TelstraClear CEO Allan Freeth confirmed that the NZD10 million upgrade to its hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) networks is part of the government’s ten-year investment plan. Mr Freeth commented: ‘The upgrade has dramatically increased the overall capacity of our HFC network. It establishes our extraordinary infrastructure capability into the future and places us ready and willing to meet the requirements of a country that has plans for a national, fibre-to-the-home network.’

Source: TeleGeography

UAE-based telecoms operator Du has announced it will launch its ‘Real Broadband’ service in August, offering subscribers across its current fixed line services footprint download speeds up to 16 times faster at current customer spend levels. The new offering will be available for enterprise customers from 1 August, while residential users can sign up to Real Broadband from 15 August. ‘We have today announced a broadband proposition that will not only provide an edge to our customers and our business partners, but has also set a regional benchmark in terms of broadband prices and value provided,’ commented Farid Faraidooni, CCO at Du, adding: ‘Du’s Real Broadband services will offer better value than similar broadband services offered in the Middle East region. It will be even more competitive than similar services provided in some developed markets such as Ireland and Canada.’

Alongside the launch of Real Broadband, Du has introduced new double- and triple-play packages. ‘Surf & Talk’ bundles landline telephony with the new high speed internet service; customers can choose between 8Mbps broadband for AED199 (USD52.2) per month, 16Mbps at AED259 or 24Mbps for AED349 a month. Meanwhile, ‘Surf, Talk and Watch’ includes fixed telephony, Real Broadband and its Du TV plus service, available at AED249 per month for maximum download speeds of 8Mbps, AED309 for 16Mbps and AED399 per month for 24Mbps broadband.

Source: TeleGeography

In 2009, growth in terms of subscribers and Homes/Buildings passed has accelerated in Europe, with respectively 19% and 29% rate between June and December 2009. In EU36 (including Russia), there were nearly 3.5 million FTTH/B subscribers and more than 25 million Homes/Buildings Passed.

Because of its specific demographic characteristics, Russia is the heaviest country in terms of subscribers and Homes/Buildings Passed even if the FTTH/B market is still in its infancy in the country. The potential of the Russian market is huge and might convince new players to get involved in FTTH/B deployments in the near future.

The global FTTH/B market grew by 16 percent to almost 41 million subscribers at the end of 2009, compared with the end of June 2009, according to a study by Idate. Over the next five years, this momentum is likely to translate into a significant increase in the number of homes passed: by the end of 2014, there will be close to 306 million homes passed for FTTH/B around the globe, of which more than half will still be located in Asia and 18 percent in Western Europe. The study also found that Eastern Europe, which has already pulled ahead of Western Europe, with 3.5 million FTTH/B customers, compared to around 2 million. In 2014, 18 countries will have deployed optical fibre networks to more than 50 percent of homes, which is 10 more than at the end of 2009. Japan is still leading with 17.14 million FTTH/B subscribers followed by South Korea with 9.23 million, the US with 5.7 million, Russia with 3.04 million and Taiwan with 1.675 million.

The top ten further includes Hong Kong, China, Sweden, Italy and France. Japanese fixed network operator NTT is the largest operator with 12.78 million customers, followed by KT from South Korea with 4.63 million, Verizon with 3.43 million, and SK Broadband from South Korea with 3.03 million.

Source: TelecomPaper

Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers, is scheduled to launch commercial fixed broadband services for residential customers based on fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) technology this week. Kiev-based newspaper Delo reported on 11 March that the cellco would enter the high speed fixed market in two weeks. The GSM operator began building its FTTB network in Kiev and Odessa in August 2009, whilst earlier this month the company’s planned merger with Russia’s Vimpelcom received Ukrainian antimonopoly clearance, giving rise to the potential for integrating the direct fibre service with Vimpelcom’s wholly owned ‘Beeline’ FTTB services operating in several cities across Ukraine. According to local press Kyivstar has over 250,000 mobile internet laptop/PC subscribers; according to GlobalComms Database it launched a resold 3G mobile internet service in April 2008, via the W-CDMA/HSDPA 'Utel' network of state-owned Ukrtelecom, the country’s only UMTS licensee. Kyivstar does not offer mobile broadband-speed services over its own infrastructure as Ukraine has repeatedly delayed the issuing of UMTS licences to privately owned operators.

Source: TeleGeography

As at 31 December 2009 France was home to a total of 19.69 million broadband and ultra high speed broadband subscribers, the national regulator Arcep says in its preliminary market review. The watchdog’s findings show that the total number of subscriptions increased by 540,000 during the fourth quarter, while the yearly increase was around 1.87 million, or 10% per annum. Of the full total reported at end-2009, 19.40 million were classed as broadband subscriptions, including 18.50 million connections - 95% of the total – up 470,000 quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, the number of ultra high speed broadband subscriptions was estimated at 290,000 by end-2009, including 70,000 FTTx (mainly fibre-to-the-home) and 220,000 were very high speed broadband access with fibre-optci cable terminated with coaxial. Under the watchdog’s classification system ultra-high speed subscriptions are those whose peak download speed is more than 50Mbps and the peak upload rate is greater than 5Mbps.

Source: TeleGeography

The Dutch broadband market numbered more than six million subscribers at the end of December 2009, writes Telecompaper. The total number of connections stood at 6.06 million at that date, up 1.3% (or 77.000) quarter-on-quarter. DSL continues to be the most popular access technology, accounting for 3.535 million of the total, albeit that the number of xDSL-based lines dipped 0.2%, or 7,100 lines, in Q4, while the number of cable modem-based subscriptions rose 2.8% to 2.358 million. The net addition of 63,700 cable broadband lines in the period under review helped push the platform’s share of the pie up 0.6 percentage points to 38.9% by the year end. Despite the continued dominance of the two technologies, strong uptake was recorded for FTTx connections which doubled to 2.8% of the market by end-2009. By the start of 2010 broadband penetration per household in the Netherlands reached 58.3%, up 2.3% year-on-year, while penetration by population stood at 36.6%, up from 35.4% previously.

KPN’s retail arm was the largest broadband provider in the country by end-2009, with 1.83 million DSL customers – bolstered by the inclusion of former Het Net customers. As at 31 December, KPN’s market share was 30.2%, up from 19.4%, ahead of cablecos Zesko Holding (Ziggo) with 1.447 million customers, a market share of 23.9%, and UPC Nederland with 741,700 customers, a 12.2% market share. As a result of the demise of Het Net, Tele2 became the fourth largest broadband ISP in the country by subscribers with 398,500 DSL customers, a market share of 6.6%.

Source: TeleGeography

According to recent findings by Dataxis Intelligence, Mobile broadband subscribers in Africa - users of data cards and USB dongles through cellular 3G networks- reached 3.3 million in September 2009 and are expected to break the 4 million milestone in the first quarter of 2010.

In the same time fixed br­oadband subscribers that stood at 3.4 million in September 2009 are forecasted to be around 3.8 million by March 2010, thereby being outpaced by 3G internet usage.

In fact, according to Dataxis, mobile broadband adoption grows 2 times faster than fixed broadband with an average net adds of over 400,000 new subscribers on a quarterly basis. This euphoria is mainly due to the flexibility of the service  with both prepaid and postpaid offerings marketed by operators as well as its user-friendly aspects -mobility, top-up to name a few.

Broadband subscribers (million)

Source: Cellular News

The Dutch broadband market grew by 0.8 percent or 38,300 net additions during the third quarter of 2009, to reach 5.996 million connections on 30 September, despite DSL losing 12,700 customers, according to Telecompaper’s Dutch Broadband Q3 2009 report. The number of DSL connections dropped by 0.4 percent during the quarter, to reach a total of 3.542 million on 30 September 2009. At the same time, cable broadband reported 1.5 percent growth to 2.294 million customers, and FTTH broadband saw its customer base grow by almost 12 percent to around 160,000.

The Dutch broadband (including FTTH) penetration per household increased to 82.2 percent at the end of Q3 2009, growing by 2.4 percentage points compared to the end of the third quarter a year earlier. Penetration per 100 inhabitants increased to 36.2 percent at the end of the third quarter, compared with 35.1 percent on 30 September 2008.

Of all broadband ISPs, cable network operator Ziggo reported the largest quarterly net additions with 18,000, followed by DSL provider Tele2 Netherlands with 15,000 and cable network operator UPC Netherlands with 14,500. Ziggo is still the largest broadband provider in the Netherlands with 1.418 million customers on 30 September, followed by Internet van KPN with 1.161 million DSL customers and UPC with 707,900 customers at the end of Q3 2009. UPC extended its lead over the number four player, KPN subsidiary and DSL provider Het Net, which lost 11,000 customers during the quarter to end at 670,000 DSL users. Tele2 remains number five in the Dutch broadband ISP rankings, winning 15,000 net additions during the third quarter to end September 2009 with 390,500 DSL customers.

Source: TelecomPaper

The potential market for broadband connections of at least 50Mbps is 900,000 households in the Netherlands, according to a report from Telecompaper.

The consumer survey, conducted in August, shows that 900,000 households would like to have at least 50Mbps download within four years. The report 'Dutch Consumer Connected Q3 2009' was released to coincide with the FTTH Netherlands conference sponsored by Telecompaper. The survey found DSL is currently the most used technology with 49 percent of the market, followed by cable with 40 percent, fibre-optics with 4 percent and other technologies at 6 percent. Around 5 percent of respondents said they still use a dial-up connection. Asked about the most important element of a broadband connection, 55 percent said price, while 37 percent appreciate the possibility of a dual-play plan of internet and telephony. Over a quarter (26%) said that a download speed of at least 50Mbps is also important, while 8 percent want a minimum upload of 8Mbps.

Source: Telecompaper

British fixed line incumbent BT has confirmed that the first official commercial rollout of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services will take place in January 2010, ISPreview reports. The telco says it expects to extend the service to approximately 1.5 million homes and businesses by the middle of next year, rising to ten million or more by 2012, and expects to invest around GBP1.5 billion (USD2.47 billion) on the deployment. No final pricing details have been revealed for the service, which will offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps, with uploads speeds expected to be between 10Mbps and 15Mbps.

BT has previously released two separate lists detailing a total of 98 exchanges where the service will initially be rolled out, including Welsh capital Cardiff and two exchanges in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

Source: Telegeography

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has invited bids from both private and state-owned operators to roll out around 28,000 fixed line broadband exchanges and 6,000 satellite broadband sites as part of efforts to increase broadband penetration across the country, particularly in rural regions. According to the Economic Times the project will be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which at present is understood to have around INR200 billion (USD4.1 billion) in unutilised funds. The successful bidders will be required to share their infrastructure with other operators, and the subsidy granted by the USOF will be allocated in a phased manner, with the final value determined by the degree to which infrastructure is shared.

Source: Telegeography

Cambodia’s state-owned incumbent Telecom Cambodia (TC) gained twice as many fixed lines subscribers in 2008 than in the previous year, boosting its number of lines in service to 26,091, writes local newspaper Phnom Penh Post. In 2008 more than 3,600 fixed lines were added, compared with just 1,500 in 2007. TC's subscriber growth has continued in 2009, with the number of fixed lines up by 1,337 in the first five months of the year. The report also adds that in total there are around 50,000 fixed line voice connections in the country, with the remainder shared between rival telcos Camintel and Mfone.

Meanwhile Camnet, the internet arm of TC, has also witnessed an increased growth in subscribers. ‘In 2007 there were about 300 Camnet subscribers, but by the close of the first half of this year (2009), the number climbed to around 1,000,’ said Lao Saroeun, director general of TC. One reason behind the increase in customers is the operator’s decision to cut the cost of broadband internet access, Saroeun added. Previously, the monthly cost for a 1Mbps downlink connection stood at USD1,300, but since Vietnamese military-owned rival operator Viettel entered the market, Camnet had dropped its price to USD700 for the same amount of bandwidth.

Source: Telegeography

British fixed line and broadband incumbent BT has announced that it is accelerating its plans for the deployment of its new 'super fast' fibre-optic broadband network, and now expects more than 1.5 million homes to have access to fibre-based services by ‘early summer 2010’.

The telco expects around one million properties to be able to connect directly via fibre by March 2010 in what it claims is a doubling of the speed of its network deployment. It has released a list of 69 locations spread across England, Wales and Scotland that have been earmarked for the latest phase of development, and the revelation comes just days after it revealed it had begun pilots of the technology in the London and Cardiff areas. Commenting on the plans, Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach, the division of the operator responsible for the rollout said: ‘Fibre is the future and so we’re speeding up the pace of our plans. We had aimed to get fibre to half a million homes by next March but we’re now being far more ambitious. We’ve received a tremendous response to date and so we’re keen to get on with the job.’ BT has set aside GBP1.5 billion (USD2.41 billion) for the construction of its new infrastructure, and aims to have made super fast broadband available to around 40% of the population by 2012.

Source: Telegeography

Filipino telco Globe Telecom has expanded its wireless broadband coverage to meet rising demand in the country. According to a report from AsiaPulse, Menchi T. Orlina, Globe's head for consumer marketing group, said the operator is spending heavily and aggressively to improve both broadband penetration and its position in the market. Orlina forecasts the country’s potential market for wireless internet broadband could top 20 million subscribers by 2012. In order to capitalise on this she says Globe is offering Globe Broadband Tatoo – a W-CDMA/HSDPA service offering download speeds of up to 2Mbps – and Globe Broadband Powered by WiMAX. The company currently has 287,000 broadband subscribers for both fixed and wireless platforms, compared with Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) with 1.84 million. Globe’s WiMAX network is based on the 802.16e standard and operates in the 2.5GHz band. It is currently available in selected areas in South Luzon, National Capital Region, Visayas and Mindanao. Around 4,000 users are signed up to the service, Orlina said.

Source: TeleGeography.