New data from TeleGeography’s Global Bandwidth Research Service reveal that demand for international bandwidth grew 39% in 2012, and at a compounded annual rate of 53% between 2007 and 2012.

International bandwidth demand growth has been robust on all five of the world’s major submarine cable routes, but has been particularly rapid on key routes to emerging markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. While bandwidth demand on the trans-Atlantic route – which has long been the world’s highest-capacity route – increased at a healthy rate of 36% annually between 2007 and 2012, demand for bandwidth from the US to Latin America grew 70% per year over the same period, and demand for capacity on the Europe-Asia route via Egypt grew a staggering 87% per year.

Telcos have kept up with increasing bandwidth demand by building new cables and upgrading existing systems, deploying a total of 54Tbps of new capacity between 2007 and 2012. Carriers’ new capacity deployments reflect the changing patterns of international bandwidth demand. Between 1997 and 2002, the amount of new capacity deployed across the Atlantic was greater than the amount deployed on the trans-Pacific, US-Latin America, Intra-Asia, and Europe-Asia routes, combined. Similarly, between 2002 and 2007, nearly half of all new capacity was deployed on the trans-Atlantic route. Over the past five years, however, new capacity deployments have become remarkably balanced, with each of the world’s major routes gaining between 10Tbps and 12Tbps.

‘While the total amount of lit bandwidth on routes to developing markets remains smaller than on routes between mature markets, demand on emerging market routes is growing much faster,’ said TeleGeography analyst Paul Brodsky. ‘Consequently, as telcos upgrade submarine cable networks to meet bandwidth demand, new capacity deployments are being distributed ever more evenly around the world.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Macedonia’s industry regulator the Agency for Electronic Communications (AEC) has published its latest observatory of the country’s telecoms markets for the period ended 30 September 2012. At that date the watchdog counted a total of 2.299 million active mobile subscribers, up 1.9% from 2.257 million in September 2011. Of these, the number of mobile broadband (2G/3G) users stood at 446,288, up 15.9% from 384,988 a year earlier; 2G narrowband users topped 172,787 (+63.8%). The Macedonian regulator also said that mobile phone users generated voice traffic of over 1.020 billion minutes in Q3 2012, up 17.3% y-o-y and 3.7% higher than in Q2 2012.

The total number of main lines in service (PSTN and ISDN) reached 407.896 at end-September 2012, down 1.4% year-on-year, of which business lines accounted for 43,615 (-0.02%). Meanwhile the number of residential fixed line subscribers dropped by 1.5% in the year under review to 364,281. The total number of internet connections was 302,257, compared to 271,773 at end-September 2011. IPTV subscriptions stood at 58,385, up 64.9% on an annualised basis.

Source: TeleGeography.

China's internet user base will reach 800 mln in 2015, reports People's Daily citing China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). As explained by MIIT minister Miao Wei, as the MIIT accelerates its 'Broadband China' project and expands broadband construction in the country, the number of internet users will continue to increase rapidly. Miao said it will continue to expand the development of mobile internet, e-commerce, cloud computing and M2M information services in China with the goal of reaching yearly e-commerce transactions of CNY 18 trillion, 2.3 million new internet sector jobs, and yearly software and information service revenue of CNY 4 trillion by 2015. The MIIT has also set a goal of domestically producing 80 percent of the country's LCD display panels used in television production.

Source: Telecom Paper.

ARCEP and the Committee for industry, energy and technologies, CGIET (Conseil général de l'industrie, de l'énergie et des technologies) have released the findings of the 10th annual survey on the use of information and communication technologies (fixed and mobile calling, internet and microcomputers) in France. This survey was conducted in June 2012 through face-to-face interviews with a sample of 2,206 people who are representative of the French population, 12 years of age and over.

What follows are some of the survey's main findings.

More and more people equipped with wireline and mobile phones, computers and internet access.

- Seventy eight percent of the population now have both a landline telephone in the home and their own mobile phone (+4 points compared to last year): telephony equipment levels stand at 89% for fixed (+1 point) and 85% for mobile (+3 points);

- four out of five people have a computer at home - most of which are laptops (70%) and 97% of which are connected to the internet;

- portable devices are increasingly popular: 64% of the population ages 12 and up own a laptop computer, a mobile phone or a tablet (+11 points);

- most people (55%) still access the internet using a landline connection at home, but this is followed closely by the use of a Wi-Fi connection at home (49%, +7 points). We are also seeing a swift increase in the use of mobile devices - i.e. tablets and phones - to access the web at home, either via Wi-Fi (23%, +10 points) or a mobile network (20%, +6 points). Ultimately, consumers are using a variety of connection modes, with 45% of them employing two or more to access the internet when at home.

Growing adoption of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) one of the main reasons for increased traffic:

- Twenty nine percent of the population surf the web using a smartphone, which marks an 8-point increase over the year before. And usage has skyrocketed over the past two years: accessing e-mail and downloading paid applications rose by a further 7 points, after having increased by 8 points in 2011 (adopted by 23% and 21% of users, respectively);

- twenty percent of individuals use a laptop computer or a tablet to connect to the internet when away from home;

- smartphone owners are twice as likely to use the mobile internet: 79% of them use their phone to surf the web, compared to only 29% of mobile phone owners as a whole. Sixty five percent use their smartphone to send e-mail, 63% to download applications and 24% to watch TV. These are nevertheless the same percentages as in 2011.

Source: ARCEP.

Ukraine’s third largest cellco Astelit (life:)) claims that it had 2.3 million mobile internet users on its GPRS/EDGE network at the end of September 2012, or 28% of its overall active mobile subscriber base which reached 8.2 million at that date (up from 7.1 million a year earlier). The number of active smartphones on Astelit’s network increased by 42% year-on-year to 1.07 million at end-September 2012, while overall mobile market leader Kyivstar reported at the same data that it had 2.56 million active smartphone subscribers, less than second-placed GSM operator MTS Ukraine which claimed almost three million smartphones, ProIT reported.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Yemeni government has begun installing a national WiMAX network to improve the availability of internet access, reports National Yemen. The project is to be completed in two phases and will see the deployment of 28 stations covering Sanaa and Aden. The rollout is expected to cost YER591 million (USD2.736 million). Commenting at a ceremony marking the launch of the project, Minister of Telecommunications Dr. Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghar said: ‘We are looking for all the people to benefit from this technology and it will be available to all kinds of people, and not just a specific group. It will be helpful in many fields – in education, health, communication.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) has awarded WiMAX licences to three operators to increase the availability of internet access in the nation. Neda Telecom, IO Global and Arianna Network Services were each awarded a licence for a fee of USD520,000. The MCIT said in a statement that between 20% and 30% of subscribers to telecoms services currently have access to the internet, though with the issuance of the trio of WiMAX licences, and the allocation of 3G licences earlier this year the ministry hopes to increase access to around 80% of the population within two years.

Telecom minister Amirzai Sangin added: ‘to change Afghanistan into [an] advanced technological and e-government country, implementing of advanced technologies is necessary and provides great facilities to the residents of the country. 3G and WIMAX technologies [will] provide fast internet services for the people of Afghanistan.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Brunei’s telecoms regulator, the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITI), has published its annual ICT indicators. Although no time-frame is mentioned by the regulator, it is assumed that the figures apply to the end of the country’s financial year, 31 March 2012. The regulator has revealed that the Sultanate’s mobile user base reached 449,260, up from 443,161 a year earlier. That total comprises 382,286 pre-paid users and 66,974 post-paid contract customers. Meanwhile, the number of fixed line subscribers increased from 79,839 to 80,039, ending a negative trend of falling subscriber totals evident in 2010 and 2011. In terms of internet access, the AITI reported 21,492 fixed line broadband subscribers, 4,161 dial-up users and 27,620 mobile internet users.

Source: TeleGeography.

Japanese cable operator Jupiter Telecommunications (J:Com) grew its customer base to approximately 3.72 million in October, up 3.5 percent year-on-year. Combined revenue generating units (RGUs) for cable television, internet access, and telephony services reached 7.50 million, up 6.8 percent from October 2011. Furthermore, the bundle ratio increased to 2.02 from 1.95 a year earlier. J:Com had 3.11 million cable TV subscribers, up 1.8 percent year-on-year. The company also had 1.95 million internet subscribers, up 8.7 percent and the number of telephony customers grew 12.4 percent to 2.44 million.

Source: Telecom Paper.