EL SEGUNDO, USA: The telco broadband market experienced a significant downturn in new subscriber additions during 2008, according to iSuppli Corp.

“New telco broadband subscriber growth saw a 9.1 percent decline in 2008 following double-digit gains during the prior five years,” said Steve Rago, principal analyst, broadband and digital home for iSuppli. “Hardest hit was North America, with new subscriber additions in 2008 amounting to 3.1 million, down 56.1 percent from 6.5 million in 2007. The world’s developed regions reached broadband saturation during 2008, while developing regions continued to grow. Of these regions, Latin America experienced the strongest growth. While the number of new broadband subscribers declined, global revenues from broadband equipment sales increased year-over-year by 9 percent.”

The figure presents iSuppli’s global broadband and telco subscriber base estimate and forecast.


Getting your fiber
Driven by the need to upgrade the broadband access network, new Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) connections grew by 90 percent and new VDSL connections grew by 54 percent compared to 2007. In the cable world, many European and American operators introduced DOCSIS 3.0, significantly increasing broadband access data rates.

iSuppli believes 2008 was a milestone in the growth of very high speed access networks. Growth in this segment of the broadband market will continue to accelerate for several years.