600 Million Broadband Subs Worldwide

According to the Broadband Forum, the global total of broadband subscribers passed 600 million in the first quarter of 2012, indicating a further acceleration in growth as more than 100 million new lines were added (20% of the total) in less than 18 months.Globally, the growth in broadband during Q1 of 2012 was estimated at 16,118,210 lines, up from 14 million in the last quarter of 2011. This represents a quarterly rise of 2.7% and an annual increase of 11.48%. Asia continues to be the biggest overall region with 262,080,147 subscribers in total, having added 8,575,397 new lines at a growth rate of 3.38% in the quarter and 15.19% in the year.The Forum's figures indicate strong increases in HFC and FTTH deployments, though DSL is still the most common wireline access technology globally.