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Broadband Growth Shifts to Europe

Point Topic�s World Broadband Statistics for mid-2005 show a number of clear trends:

*The growth in the number of broadband lines worldwide is levelling off
*Europe is pushing to take over the leadership of broadband growth
*Russia and India are making significant appearances on the broadband scene at last
*�Cable ethernet� is growing rapidly as a technology solution in many countries

The worldwide total of broadband lines grew to 176 million during the second quarter of 2005, an increase of 16.0 percent from 152 million lines at 31 December 2004. The total number of broadband lines added between the end of 2004 and the second quarter of 2005 was almost 24.3 million.

This was barely ahead of the 24.2 million lines added in the first half of 2004, and well below the 28 million added in the second half, showing a distinct slowing in the growth rate of broadband. The second quarter of the half-year was particularly weak, even after taking account of seasonal factors � which usually dictate relatively slow growth in this quarter.

Leadership in broadband growth is shifting to Europe as saturation causes slowdowns in the Asia Pacific countries. South Korea is still well ahead as the most broadband using country in the world, but it is not nearly so far ahead of the rest as it used to be. In fact the number of DSL lines in South Korea actually fell in the first half of 2005, although that was offest by continuing growth in cable modems and cable ethernet connections.

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