The number of worldwide broadband subscribers will rise 53% by the
end of the year to 46 million from 30 million at the beginning of
2002, according to a report by In-Stat/MDR.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is the favourite broadband technology
in use worldwide, with 17 million subscribers. In the US, cable
modem access was the most popular broadband technology, with 7.12
million subscribers compared with DSL's 4.6 million, In-Stat/MDR
said.
The US cable industry's Triple Play bundled service package of
voice, video, and high-speed Internet access has proved a
combination that DSL has found hard to match, In-Stat/MDR
said.
The gains made by DSL have happened largely in the Asia-Pacific
region, where Japan and especially South Korea have adopted
broadband enthusiastically.
South Korea has the world's highest broadband penetration rate,
driven by the country's online gaming habit. Korea's Electronics
and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) estimates that the
country's 48 million people will include 12 million broadband
Internet subscribers by the end of this year, most of them being
DSL subscribers.
Cable and DSL between them account for 95% of broadband access
worldwide, with the rest accounted for by satellite broadband,
fibre-to-the-home and fixed wireless service.
Fixed wireless has a promising future with the emergence of the
802.11 standard. According to In-Stat/MDR, fixed wireless
subscribers will triple worldwide in 2002.
The main hindrance to broadband growth worldwide is the poor
telecommunication infrastructure in many areas that cannot yet
support broadband access technologies, according to the report.