Asia-Pacific Is the Largest Region for Broadband Access Accounting for 40% of the World's Total User Base.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c32893) has announced the addition of World Broadband Access Market to their offering.

180 million broadband subscribers around the globe in mid-2005: a steady growth momentum being sustained from year to year.

We are publishing the 6th edition of its Atlas of the world broadband access market (an annual report which is updated quarterly). This is the chance to gain a comprehensive view of the state of the access market, by country and type of technology, along with the state of competition around the globe and the major industry trends.

--Asia-Pacific still in the lead, but Europe closing the gap.

--The Asia-Pacific zone is still number one in terms of broadband access, accounting for over 40% of the globe's user base. In the meantime, Europe is now home to more broadband subscribers than North America.

--The US is the country with the largest base of broadband subscribers, but reporting declining growth rates.

--And China is expected to take the lead in 2006: China's broadband user base virtually doubled during the period running from mid-2004 to mid-2005. Among the world's largest developing countries, Brazil, Russia and India are at last emerging on the broadband stage, and all are reporting very healthy growth rates. Meanwhile, in Europe, France, the UK and Germany are in a dead heat for the largest broadband base, each one having more than 8 million connections.

--South Korea still the benchmark in broadband penetration

--Despite being near saturation, South Korea is still ahead of the world's other mature markets (the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada) by a nose. France and the UK, which have being enjoying significant growth rates, are reporting penetration rates comparable to the one found in the US

DSL still broadband's driving force

--DSL's role as the primary driving force behind growth of the broadband user base is well entrenched, even in the US. Cable's dominance of the North American market remains an exception in the global broadband landscape, thanks to outstanding coverage and the presence of heavyweight players.

--2005 also marks the advent of very high-speed (VHS). The migration to VHS is stepping up in Japan (where there were in fact more new FTTx/ETTx subscribers than new DSL subscribers in the first half of 2005) and South Korea, while also becoming a reality in the US now that regulatory restrictions have been lifted. In Europe, in the meantime, incumbent carriers are beginning to consider the possibility.

Broadband's competition landscape

The degree of competition does, however, vary considerably in Asia, North America and Europe. Even within Europe, despite there being certain common trends, significant disparities remain in terms of industrial organisation, either due to cable's prominence, the aggressiveness of the incumbent's strategies, or the prominence of wholesale DSL and unbundling.

--Although incumbent carriers' market dominance is more acute in Europe than in the US, competition in the DSL market is fiercer on the Old Continent, particularly in those countries where unbundling is on the rise. In Europe, we have witnessed the transition from a model based on wholesale DSL to one based on unbundling (France, Italy, Sweden).

--The Japanese market is undoubtedly the most competitive in the world. In mid-2005, NTT East and NTT West's combined market share (number of broadband connections) totalled only 39%. Very affordable shared access and the ability to unbundle dark fibre for connecting to distribution frames have created a high level of DSL competition between alterative operators.

--Benefiting from a population living in collective buildings (local loop owners), and cities equipped with dense fibre and open cable infrastructures, South Korean ISPs were able to deploy their services rapidly under a neutral model (an ISP's ability to use DSL, cable model and Ethernet LAN).

Broadband operator model at the heart of players' strategies

With unbundling on the rise, the key to success in the broadband market is the adoption of a broadband operator model.

--The growing ubiquity of broadband has forced incumbent carriers to place Internet access at the heart of their strategies. All have been reincorporating their ISP subsidiaries which were originally created as start-ups.

--As unbundling is gaining ground, recent months have been marked by the transformation of ISPs with no infrastructure into broadband operators. Two options are available to them: either invest in the network or take over an operator that owns the infrastructures.

--And, finally, a long string of mergers in a bid to achieve critical mass, and increase service coverage, have been taking place in the cable industry in recent months, particularly in Europe.

-- The issue of critical mass (subscriber base), and the capacity to mobilise massive investments are becoming key to success in the marketplace. Consolidation is thus likely to continue over the coming months.

Topics Covered

1 - 2005 MARKETS & 2009 FORECASTS

2 - COMPANIES

3 - MARKETS BY COUNTRY

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c32893