The number of individual broadband lines in the world is now nearing 300 million, with 17.4 million extra lines coming online in the first quarter of 2007 alone.
Growth in high-speed connections worldwide is now starting to slow, according to broadband analysts, Point Topic. The quarterly growth in Q1 2007 is 6.2 per cent, with year-on-year growth between March 2006 and March 2007 being 28.7 per cent, well down on the spectacular growth of 83 per cent between Q4 2002 and Q1 2003.
For its part, the UK added 840,000 broadband subscribers during Q1 2007, pitching us into fifth place overall behind China, the USA, France and Germany.
China has been topping the ranking since the beginning of 2006 due to its high growth rate and market size. After last quarter’s slowdown in growth, sliding from 7.8 per cent in Q3 2006 to 6.5 per cent in growth in Q3 2006, this quarter China has seen a quarterly rise, displaying a growth of 8.8 per cent. The total of new additions was well ahead of the USA by 1.6 million.
The USA, being the country with the second largest number of net additions
worldwide, gained another 2.9 million lines over the quarter. Quarterly net additions in the USA have remained very much constant, oscillating between 3.3 and 2.1 million since Q3 2005.
In terms of overall numbers of broadband subscribers, the USA remains on top with 60.4 million subscribers, followed by China with 56.3 million subscribers.
Stated Point Topic: “The gap between the USA and China is narrowing from 5.4 million in Q4 2006 to 4.1 million in Q1 2007. With Phase Two of the “Cun Cun Tong” programme (“Connect all villages with Internet”) ready to begin and its populous advantage, it is almost certain that China will be catching up with the USA very soon.”
Time to consider a Mandarin version of our web sites perhaps?
Related HIE Business link - Types of broadband
