TeleGeography Reports Global Broadband Subscribers Now Over 221 Million

According to TeleGeography, a leading telecom market research firm, the number of worldwide high-speed Internet subscriber lines surpassed 221 million at the end of 2005. The number comes out the latest analysis released in TeleGeography's World Broadband Yearbook. Most broadband subscribers -- about 65 percent -- access the Internet via DSL technology.

The global subscriber total increased 37 percent in 2005, from around 162 million a year earlier, and a little over 106 million in 2003. TeleGeography forecasts the total will grow to 286 million by the end of 2006, before climbing to 448 million by 2010.

A Breakdown of Broadband Subscribers Region by Region (from December 2005) is as follows:

• Asia-Pacific - 89,573,436
•  
• Europe - 63,455,527
• U.S. & Canada - 53,270,000
• Latin America + Caribbean - 9,668,888
• Middle East - 3,863,210
• Africa - 1,987,200
• Global total - 221,818,261

TeleGeography's new annual broadband almanac focuses on the world's major broadband service providers and consumer markets, providing analysis of broadband markets in 50 countries as well as market share and subscriber data for over 250 major service providers.

The analysis includes:

• Subscriber growth by operator and technology
• Summary of service plans and tariffs offered by each operator
• Details on operators' network types and technology
• Regulatory analysis for each country with LLU status and VoIP legislation
• Forecasts for broadband growth covering the period 2006-2010