Ten Million New Subscribers Choose DSL

Over 10 million new global subscribers choose DSL (digital subscriber line) in the first quarter of 2005, according to industry analyst Point Topic.

DSL has reached a global total of 107 million subscribers by 31 March 2005 with an estimated 115 million expected by early June 2005.
There are 15 countries with more than 1 million subscribers with China comfortably the largest DSL population at 19 497 000 followed by the USA at 15 106 294 and Japan in third position with 13 887 000 subscribers.
France, U.K., Germany and Japan have seen excellent growth in their DSL market adding over half a million new subscribers to broadband DSL in the first three months of 2005.
The U.K. is the fastest growing established DSL market contributing over 20% to reach almost 5 million subscribers. Furthermore, the European Union (EU) continues to make up the world’s number one DSL region with almost one third of the total DSL subscribers coming from this area.
But it is the emerging markets that are beginning to show significant penetration of the DSL market.
“DSL keeps spreading. As the early adopters start to slow down slightly, the baton passes to the emerging countries,” commented Tim Johnson of Point Topic. “Countries such as Turkey, Mexico or the Philippines would not have been considered mass-market targets for a high-tech premium service a few years ago. And I think there’s another cycle of growth to come as the established DSL markets tackle the problem of making broadband connections ubiquitous to all their citizens.”
South Africa currently has around 67 000 subscribers, which when compared to other emerging markets like Brazil (over 2 million subscribers), Mexico and Argentina (totaling more than 300 000 subscribers each) and Turkey (1.5 million subscribers), fails to capture a significant share of the emerging market.
Steve Kingdom, president of the DSL forum, stated that “DSL roll-out continue to reach unprecedented levels, in both established and emerging countries.”
For South Africa to become a significant contributing member of DSL roll-out in Africa penetration needs to increase considerably.