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Broadband Consumers Using Multiple Access

Consumer enthusiasm for broadband service continues unabated. In fact, some will subscribe to more than one type of broadband access, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. During 2009, an average of 8.8 million new broadband subscribers worldwide signed up for service each month.

By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the number of global broadband subscribers will surpass 1 billion.

"The growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as watching online video, using IP-based telephony services, and downloading music files, is spurring global demand for broadband Internet connections," says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst.

Their reporting on the penetration of DSL relative to Mobile Internet subscribers was a surprise to me. I'm wondering if In-Stat has some of their data points transposed in their research report summary. Can it be true, that mobile wireless broadband has already surpassed cable broadband access, globally?

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- As of December 2009, there were 578 million worldwide broadband subscribers, an increase of 99 million over the year-end 2008 subscriber total.

- DSL, mobile wireless, and cable modem service are the leading access technologies, providing 89 percent of worldwide broadband connections.

- Mobile wireless broadband is the second largest access technology (behind DSL) with 18 percent of total subscribers.

- Over the next few years, the number of households with multiple broadband connections will increase significantly. These multiple connection households will commonly have a wired broadband access technology, like DSL or cable modem service, along with a mobile wireless broadband connection.

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