Abstract
Bethesda, MD, June 5, 2006 - According to DITTBERNER' s recently released
report “1Q07 Global broadband Subscriber Survey”, global broadband
subscribers increased 5.9% in 1Q07 to reach 290.1 Million, of which 195
Million were DSL, 65 Million were cable Modem, 22 Million were FTTB and 7
Million were FTTH. Of the top ten countries, China, France and Germany grew
the fastest, adding a combined 6.5 Million of the 16 Million new subscribers
added in the first quarter. China grew at a record pace and is on track to add
16 Million new subscribers in 2007.
The three largest service providers, China Telecom, China Netcom, and AT&T,
accounted for 3.7 Million new subscribers or 23% of the total growth. The top
ten service providers accounted for 6.9 Million new subscribers or 43% of the
global growth, which is equal to their share of the world market. Their retail
broadband subscribers and their quarterly growth are listed below:
France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Telecom Italia' s results
include all of their subsidiaries. Comcast remains the only top ten service
provider whose access technology is Cable Modems. NTT is the only service
provider that uses fiber access for the majority of its connections. AT&T
moved into third spot by acquiring BellSouth.
Six of the top ten service providers grew faster than the market as a whole.
Deutsche Telekom grew the fastest, with the whole German market being one of
the fastest growing ones this quarter. Comcast grew the slowest, and
interestingly, is in competition with Verizon, which is deploying FTTH in a
large part of the Comcast region. NTT grew more slowly than the market, but
did well in the highly penetrated Japanese market. NTT' s FTTH and FTTB
deployments are poaching customers from its competitors.
All sub-regions exceeded the overall market growth rate of 5.8%, except for
Asia Pacific, Western Europe and North America. This slow down in growth rate
is a symptom of the high penetration of these markets. Korea, the country with
the greatest penetration of broadband grew only 1.5% in 1Q07, while Canada,
the UK and the USA all grew less than 3.5%. In Central America, Mexico grew at
a 12% rate while 11th place Brazil grew at 7%.
Fixed-line growth opportunities for service providers require the addition of
broadband subscribers and with increasing frequency, the improvement of the
access bandwidth in highly penetrated markets. Fiber access is breathing new
life into some of the operators. NTT' s Hikara service is allowing it to steal
back the broadband market that it missed when DSL was introduced. Verizon also
seems to be trying to make up for having given the Cable operators a head
start by building an FTTH network and offering higher-bandwidth services.
"Verizon is having success with its FiOS TV service which is an optical
version of the Cable operators RF frequency multiplexed service, but both NTT
and Verizon are getting a second look from the market through their
higher-bandwidth offerings," says James Heath, Research Director at
Dittberner. "In Europe the incumbents are under pressure as alternative
service providers have been offering three services, (Voice, Video and Data),
for the price of two, (Voice and Data). This has made Europe more of an IPTV
battleground, but the operators are now preparing to add fiber to be in a
position to offer higher quality, more advanced services." | 
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