Broadband growth in the United Kingdom has been "strong", contributing to a 4.05 per cent increase in high-speed internet connections in western Europe between July and September, a new survey of global broadband trends has found.

The study, reported by data communications news service myADSL, found that there were 328.8 million broadband subscribers worldwide in the third quarter of 2007 - an increase of 4.72 per cent on the previous three months.

And although global growth slowed slightly, there was increasing demand from developing broadband markets. Eastern Europe led the world in percentage growth, the report said, with an 11.54 per cent rise in subscribers, around ten per cent of all new broadband customers.

However, the highest total of new subscribers was in south and east Asia, where 3.9 million people hooked up to broadband services. China accounted for 90 per cent of these new connections.

Latin America also saw a steady rise in broadband, with 1.3 million new customers logging on. Around the same number started subscribed to new broadband services in Asia Pacific, the report said.

According to Eurostat, 57 per cent of UK households now have broadband internet.