* Saturation in the broadband market keeps growth down
Even though the second quarter saw the steepest drop in DSL prices in four years, it was also the quarter with the lowest broadband growth rate ever.
According to market tracker Point Topic Research, the quarterly growth rate in the second quarter of 2006 was only 7.1% worldwide, a significant drop from 8.5% at the end of 2005.
Due to “saturation” in the broadband market, North America only managed to achieve 4.82% growth in the second quarter, according to Point Topic. Western Europe and Asia Pacific suffered form the same malaise, limiting quarterly growth to 5.64% and 4.50%, respectively.
Asia Pacific was the region with the lowest growth rate, the firm found.
It is common for the broadband market to show a decline during the first half of the year, according to Point Topic, so the firm said it expects more substantial growth in the third and the fourth quarters.
China added significantly more broadband lines in the second quarter than the U.S., with a net addition of 5.1 million lines. China now has a total of 46 million lines, accounting for almost 19% of the world’s broadband total, putting the country on track to have the largest broadband subscriber base in the world, Point Topic states.
Growth in DSL has slowed down gradually since the third quarter of 2005, the firm says. This slowdown is most apparent in South Korea and Japan, where a significant number of subscribers have migrated from DSL to FTTx, the firm states.
Cable modem also reported a decline in growth during Q2, according to Point Topic.
