Europe leading broadband subscriber growth

Europe saw more growth in broadband subscribers than any other region for the second year in a row, according to figures from analysts Point Topic.

The research, for the Broadband Forum, also found that there are almost 120 million broadband subscribers in Europe, making up 32 per cent of the total market, which stands at 380 million, a rise of 17 per cent from last year.

Germany leads the way in Europe, with over 21 million subscriptions, with the UK and France behind on roughly 16.5 million each, while the USA, China and Japan top the global league.

George Dobrowski, chairman and president of the Broadband Forum, said: "This report demonstrates how the broadband industry is visibly evolving, reacting to a number of variables from economic and environmental factors driving better existing network utilisation, to speed and application demands associated with the introduction of new services."

The Broadband Forum recently held its first meeting since changing its name from the DSL Forum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Fixed Mobile Convergence was one of the main topics discussed, along with Internet Protocol v6, fibre architecture and IPTV over DSL.