Subscribers to fixed broadband will exceed 500 million worldwide by the end of 2014, including more than 100 million who will be connected via fiber, predicts ABI Research.
In the latest quarterly update to it Broadband Subscribers Market Data study released this week, ABI estimates total worldwide broadband subscribers at 422 million as of the end of 2009, up 9% from the previous year at that time. Fiber subscribers comprised 11% of that number, in comparison with 65% who connected via DSL and 25% who connected via cable. But fiber subscribers have the highest growth rate, and ABI is predicting a 20% compound annual growth rate for that category between 2008 and 2014.
The Asia-Pacific region currently has the highest fiber broadband penetration, representing nearly 84% of worldwide fiber broadband subscribers, the ABI researchers say. North America has the next highest fiber subscribership level, followed by Europe, according to ABI.
“File sharing, music downloads, IPTV, online gaming and videoconferencing are all acting to increase user demand for high-speed Internet,” said ABI research associate Khin Sandi Lynn in a press release. “The number of fiber broadband subscribers is increasing with growing popularity of these services.”
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