DSL Leads Globally, U.S. Gap Narrowing

The global broadband connection of choice is expected to catch up to the cable modem in the U.S.

by Robyn Greenspan Managing Editor of Cyberatlas [November 26, 2003]

Slowpokes are expected to get left behind as the U.S. careens toward 50 percent broadband penetration by 2008, according to Jupiter Research (a unit of this site's corporate parent). By that time, DSL will narrow the 2-to-1 adoption gap, reaching more than 20 percent, compared to cable modem's nearly 25 percent share.

Jupiter figured DSL lines accounted for 6.7 percent of total U.S. internet accessibility in 2003, with cable modem representing 14.4 percent. The divide narrows incrementally until it finally reaches just over 4.5 percentage points in 2008.

The U.S. High-Speed Picture
Broadband Method	Subscribers at end of Q3 2003	Net Adds in Q3 2003
Cable	14,471,146	1,246,218
DSL	8,215,275	789,097
Total Broadband	22,686,421	2,035,315
Source: Sources: The Companies and Leichtman Research Group, Inc.

While the U.S. hasn't fully embraced DSL, the rest of the world has selected the connection method over cable modem, and Point-Topic estimates that 60 percent (46.7 million) of all broadband lines worldwide were DSL by the end of the first half of 2003, and the forecast is for 60 million DSL lines by the end of the year.

Point-Topic found that Japan and China dominated worldwide DSL growth over the first half of 2003, adding nearly 4.5 million of the total 10.7 million additions. The Asia-Pacific region leads DSL global subscriptions, accounting for roughly 38 percent of the market, while Western Europe follows with more than 27 percent. Another 20 percent of the DSL pie goes to North America; Southeast Asia, 10 percent; Middle East and Africa, .8 percent; and Eastern Europe .4 percent.

Global DSL Subscriber Growth, First Half of 2003
Country	Q1 and Q2 2003 Combined	Total
Japan	2.617 million	8.257 million
U.S.	1.125 million	7.575 million
China	1.880 million	4.100 million
Germany	654.5 thousand	3.864 million
France	673.2 thousand	2.039 million
Italy	525.0 thousand	1.435 million
UK	519.5 thousand	1.071 million
Source: Point-Topic

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