Over 40 million new sign-ups in 2005

Over 41 million homes and businesses, equivalent to over 112,000 customers every day around the world, selected DSL technology for broadband connectivity in 2005, according to the latest data produced for the DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic.

By the end of December 2005, there were 138.8 million broadband DSL subscribers globally, the research house said, following DSL subscriber growth of 42 per cent during the year, or a rate of almost 800,000 new users per week.

Regionally, the European Union remained the largest DSL population worldwide, adding 16.7 million subscribers during the year, or a growth of 53 per cent, to total 48.2 million DSL subscribers at year end, accounting for almost 35 per cent of the world market.

The Middle East and Africa was the fastest growing region, increasing its DSL subscriber base by 112.5 per cent in 2005, to reach a total of almost three million.

Turkey added more than one million new subscribers and accounted for almost 70 per cent of the region's growth in the year.

China, which has comfortably the highest DSL country population worldwide, added 9.4 million new subscribers in 2005, and now accounts for almost 94 per cent of the total subscriber base in South and South East Asia.

By the end of 2005, there were 20 countries with a DSL subscriber population of more than one million, with half of these in Europe. Five countries passed the million mark during 2005: Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Poland and Turkey.

Michael Brusca, chairman and president of the DSL Forum, said: "We are continuously developing technical specifications to allow providers to deliver multiple services simultaneously over broadband, providing automated and remote management facilities to increase the quality of the customer experience.

"This, coupled with our inclusive approach to encompass various types of access platform, improves the economics of broadband service delivery, enabling greater global market growth."