Worldwide broadband subscriber numbers increased 8.6% in 2012 to 643.77 million adding about 50 million new users, according to Point Topic data released by the Broadband Forum.
According to the report, the rise in annual numbers mainly due to increase in superfast broadband, with hybrid fibre installations like FTTx/VDSL2.
Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said that growth in number of subsribers highlight the ongoing strength of the broadband market.
"We are increasingly witnessing a shift in technology, particularly to fibre, as consumer habits evolve and the demand for higher
bandwidths increases,"Mersh said.
The FTTx, including VDSL and VDSLS2, users recorded a 27.5% rise to 114.44 million during the year and the number of subscribers using DSL, including ADSL, ADSL2+ and SDSL, went up by 3.6% to 353.99 million.
During the year, the cable modem and FTTH users increased by 7.2% and 20.3% to 115.23 million and 16.04 million, respectively, whereas the IPTV service subscribers grew to 11.8% from 10.4% in the previous year.
The report revealed that DSL led the market with 56.95% market share, followed by cable modem with 19.19% and FTTx with 17.78% share.
In 2012, broadband subscribers in China grew by 15.11% to reach 178.25 million, the US registered 3.89% rise to 95.2 million, followed by Japan with 1.29% increase to 37.17 million, Germany reached 29.83 million users with 4.25% increase and France up 3.9% to 23.04 million.
The fastest annual broadband subscriber growth was recorded in Brazil with 17.96% rise to 19.48 million, followed by China, while India, up 14.1% to 15.14 million, stood third and was succeeded by Russia with 12.81% growth to 22.99 million.
