Global fixed broadband subs to reach 1b by year-end

The global fixed broadband market is on track to reach 1 billion subscribers by the end of 2019, driven by unprecedented growth of fiber connections in Asia Pacific, particularly China, according to Kagan.

At the end of 2018, broadband subscriptions reached 974.7 million while broadband household penetration reached 45.5%, up from 43.2% in 2017. However, household penetration is projected to remain under 50% until 2025, the S&P Global Market Intelligence research unit said.

Source: Kagan

China and US remain by far the largest fixed-broadband markets, together accounting for half (50.7%) of the global total in 2018. China alone claims 40.1% of the global total and 74.4% of Asian broadband subs due to large-scale fiber deployments as part of the country’s national Broadband China project.

Singapore maintains the highest fixed-broadband household penetration in the world, at over 100%.

In terms of access technology, 51.4% of the global fixed broadband subscribers are using fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), which overtook DSL in 2016 to become the largest fixed-broadband platform on a global scale.

FTTP remains the fastest-growing fixed-broadband platform, growing by 13.8% year over year in 2018.

According to Kagan, fiber subscriptions have overtaken DSL in Asia and Eastern Europe, with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and US being the five largest fiber-optic markets in the world.

Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa are still in favor of using DSL, making it the dominant multichannel platform in these continents, while cable leads in North America and Latin America.