Broadband infrastructure spend to top $42bn this year

A new study has predicted that telephone companies are to spend a record amount on broadband infrastructure equipment this year.

Research from iSuppli revealed $42 billion will be spent on equipment this year.

Global broadband subscribers will increase to 622.7 million by 2011, which is more than twice the number in 2006.

Steve Rago, principal analyst with iSuppli, said: "ADSL remained the leading broadband technology around the world in 2006, with 72 percent of the subscribers, while cable modems ended 2006 with 22 percent."

"The ADSL market is headed for a major inflection point when existing subscribers begin to upgrade to higher-speed services."

In Japan this has already occurred, with many users subscribing to fiber to the home technology, which enables download speeds up to 15 times as fast, Mr Rago added.