ABI Research has conducted a study on Broadband Subscribers Market Data, which is updated bi-annually. In-depth quantitative market forecast data and analysis of market trends about specific areas and countries all over the world are provided in this study.
According to this study, there is a worldwide increase in the number of subscribers making use of high bandwidth services such as online gaming and internet video. The IP traffic created by internet services is pressurizing service providers to address the bandwidth requirement. Broadband providers are increasing the coverage of fiber broadband services to satisfy the increasing demands in this sector. For instance, China Telecom is operating fiber optic broadband to provide services to 30 million subscribers of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services and 100 million domestic subscribers before the year-ending 2015.
Currently fiber optic broadband services are widely used in North America followed by Asia-Pacific. Extension of fiber broadband penetration improves speed and enables additional services such as IPTV and video on demand (VOD). The company estimates that the numbers of global fiber broadband customers would increase from 69.6 million in 2011 to 142 million in 2016. Due to the increase in subscribers’ number in China, Asia Pacific is showing rapid customer growth. An addition of 17 million Chinese customers has been observed post the second quarter of 2010.
According to Jason Blackwell, ABI Research’s Practice Director, the number of fixed broadband customers, worldwide, is over 539 million during the end of the second quarter. This is an increase of about 8% from the same quarter in 2010 and subscribers’ number is higher in emerging markets, he added.