678.6 million Broadband Subscribers Worldwide at the end of 2013
London, UK, April 14, 2014--The latest Point Topic Global Broadband Report reveals that there were 678.6m subscribers worldwide at the end of 2013. The report tracks the take-up of fixed broadband services at country and technology level across the globe and the latest growth trends up to the end of Q4 2013.
The growth in Q4 2013 was lower than both the proceeding quarter and the corresponding quarter in 2012. Other key findings of the report include:
- Annual broadband growth rate slows to 6.15%
- China now has twice as many broadband subscribers as the US
- Global IPTV subscriptions hit 96 million
- Europe has fared better than many regions in terms of growth (Europe – East) and penetration vs growth (Europe – Other) but Asia – East is also making strides in this category.
- The scale of the challenge for Africa is also highlighted. The potential of this market is yet to be fulfilled and, while supply is improving, there is considerable uncertainty about the plans of individual nations.
- America – North is in some ways the most surprising output from the data. Given the relative wealth of the population and the maturity of the market, we would expect to see the US and Canada further ahead.
Figure 1: World broadband subscriber numbers with growth to Q4 2013. Source – Point Topic
Figure 2: Penetration and quarterly growth by region in Q4 2013. Source – Point Topic
