China accounted for 37% of all new broadband Internet subscribers added worldwide in the first quarter of 2010, according to new statistics from iSuppli. And with the country's rapid growth set to continue, the analyst firm is urging vendors to work on a long-term China strategy or risk missing out on a highly lucrative market.

The company did not provide full subscriber figures for Q1, but said that China saw sequential growth of 57% during the quarter, making it the fastest growing global market. Based on figures from April and May, the second quarter will likely see "the blistering growth" continue, iSuppli added, predicting that new additions for that quarter will hit 5.5 million.

iSuppli forecasts that China will be home to 183.9 million broadband subscribers by 2014, up from 103.2 million in 2009.

Ratliff pointed out that growth in China is being driven at least in part by a government stimulus plan that will see $22 billion injected into the rollout of fibre access networks in the country by the end of 2011; the project will cover the establishment of over 80 million fibre broadband ports. Naturally, the analyst firm predicts that Chinese vendors such as Huawei, ZTE, Shanghai Bell Alcatel, and others will be the main beneficiaries of the stimulus programme and of broadband growth in China. But there is still an opportunity for foreign players. iSupplis recommends that Western vendors partner with local Chinese companies or deepen their existing ties with the top domestic vendors.

CableLabs is working on a new set of specifications to add some unification and scale to the way cable operators and their programming partners deploy "TV Everywhere" services to broadband-connected PCs. The work is born out of a request for information (RFI) released by CableLabs last fall that looked into defining a common technical approach for providing secure broadband access to subscription video services. At the time, the RFI sought out data related to service architectures, technical interfaces, security, and customer privacy.

From the sounds of it, the initial interface spec for what's being called Online Content Access (OLCA) won't cover all the topics of the original RFI. Industry sources say the spec will instead focus on just two key TV Everywhere functions: authentication and authorization. Authentication is the process by which the MSOs and programmers would verify a subscriber's identity online. Authorization determines what content an authenticated subscriber is entitled to view.

Although cable has shown much interest in extending TV Everywhere services to smartphones and other broadband-connected handhelds, the first round of building-block specs will likely be limited to PCs.

CableLabs is trying to lock down the interface specs for those functions before MSOs and programmers get too far along with one-off TV Everywhere trials. Customer sign-on, for instance, could be done by a centralized video hub, or through the Websites operated by individual programmers. With a common interface for authentication and authorization, both methods should work and keep the content sufficiently protected.

Without things like common interfaces, the fear is that costs could escalate because of the massive number of customizations. Programmers and vendors alike have already lamented that deployments of TV Everywhere services could be slowed without the presence of standards and specs.

CableLabs declined to comment on how its OLCA specs work, which hasn't been made public as it goes through the review process. However, it's believed that CableLabs intends to publish the specs within about 90 days.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, HSPA/LTE accounted for 17.3 percent of the total number of broadband connections in Europe at the end of 2009. The number of HSPA/LTE mobile broadband subscribers (connected PCs) grew by 71 percent year-on-year in 2009 to reach 25.0 million and is forecasted to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.6 percent to 81 million by 2015. The North American market has so far evolved at a slower pace, with mobile broadband accounting for just 7.1 percent of the total number of connections. Between 2009 and 2015, the North American market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.8 percent to reach 42 million subscribers at the end of the period.

The levels of adoption of mobile broadband vary significantly across Europe. “Austria is the most advanced market with a penetration rate of over 15 percent, corresponding to 40 percent of all broadband connections in the country. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Portugal have also penetration rates above 10 percent. Belgium, Netherlands and Greece have on the other hand penetration rates of less than 3 percent”, said Marcus Persson, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight. He predicts that mobile broadband connectivity will eventually become a standard feature in portable PCs which will have integrated wireless modems, enabling them to connect to the best available network. “The attach rate of embedded mobile broadband in notebooks was less than 5 percent in both Europe and North America last year. This will change as prices for the embedded modules decrease and an attach rate of almost 45 percent is expected already in 5 years”, Marcus concludes.

Huawei has established itself as the world’s largest supplier of mobile broadband terminals holding a market share of 53 percent and has a particularly strong foothold in Europe. ZTE is the second largest vendor with clear margins capturing a market share of 30 percent. Berg Insight estimates the total global number of shipped external mobile broadband devices in 2009 to 66 million, with Europe and North America accounting for 24.3 million units and 5.6 million units respectively.

Defying the global economic downturn by adding another 58 million lines of broadband technology in 2009, there are now more than 466.95 million broadband customers in the world according to statistics released today by the Broadband Forum. The report was announced at the IPTV World Forum in London, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic and it shows a healthy annual growth percentage of 14.21% with strongest growth showing in fourth quarter.

IPTV had a banner year, adding more than 10.8 million subscribers (compared to 9.4 million in 2008). By year-end 2009, there were more than 33 million IPTV customers- an annual increase of 47%. Each quarter was stronger in 2009 than its corresponding 2008 quarter, and fourth quarter posted the strongest growth at 11%. 

This steady IPTV growth provided a significant addition to operators’ ARPU as many regions focused on enhanced service bundles. The growth was rapid in almost all markets with some countries more than doubling their IPTV subscribers during 2009.

Regional Highlights

The Asian market showed the strongest growth with China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam being the most significant contributors to Asia’s broadband dominance in 2009. Asia now accounts for 39% of the broadband market and 32% of the IPTV market.

China passed a major milestone in fourth quarter, now serving more than 100 million broadband subscribers, and holding the number one broadband country spot worldwide. This region also included the fastest growing major broadband countries in world; Philippines (over 60%), India (40+% growth) as well as Indonesia and Vietnam. Regarding IPTV- China, S. Korea, Japan and Hong Kong were all in the top ten list of territories.

According to Oliver Johnson, Chief Analyst at Point Topic, "As regulatory hurdles are cleared, many countries in the Asian region should be freed to market to and add more subscribers. With South Korea looking strong and China building on its acceleration in the latter stages of 2009 the region could easily dominate IPTV growth in 2010."

In the Americas, the top story was the strong IPTV growth. This region experienced the fastest IPTV growth in the world with 58% more subscribers in 2009 as compared to 2008. Both North and South American countries have started showing significant signs of IPTV adoption and the prospects for 2010 look good. The USA ended the year with more than 5.6 million IPTV customers, growing by more than 60%. 

Regarding broadband growth, the USA and Canada reported a steady growth throughout the year, while a slow down in Central and South America contributed to a lower growth rate for the region. The region as a whole added 13.7 million customers in 2009 (as compared to 15.9 M in 2008). The USA, with 85,287,100 subscribers, and Brazil, with 11,006,400, were in the top ten countries in the world.

In the European region, the success of premium bundles and keen competition in Europe drove the take-up of IPTV, particularly in France. Point Topic estimates that there are over 8 million IPTV subscribers in France (up from 6.1 million in Q4 2009). That is equivalent to 42% of France’s 19 million broadband lines. France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Spain all were in the top ten IPTV countries.

Regarding broadband, Europe now accounts for 30.6% of the market, serving more than 142.9 million customers by year end. There was a clear acceleration of subscriber growth with strong numbers from all major European markets in the last quarter. 

The Middle East & Africa (MEA) region experienced double digit broadband growth of 11.8 %, serving 13.7 million customers. Though significantly lower growth was reported in 2009 than 2008, the region reported the strongest quarterly growth of all regions in fourth quarter with a 3.3% uptake. 

Recently initiating IPTV rollouts, MEA is just beginning to show growth. Although still early in its adoption cycle, the market looks set to accelerate in 2010 according to Point Topic.

Four months before its opening, ANGA Cable, Europe’s leading Trade Fair and Congress for Cable, Broadband and Satellite is nearly fully booked. The organizer has received more than 300 exhibitor registrations – demand for floor space is higher than that of the previous year at the corresponding point in time. The registrations already account for more than 90 percent of the available floor space.

ANGA Cable Show will take place 4 - 6 May 2010 and comprises an exhibition and an international congress. The organizer, who is not tied to any exhibition site, has opted once again for the Cologne Fairground in 2010. In 2009 there were 383 exhibitors and more than 13,600 trade visitors from over 69 countries. 42 % of the visitors travelled to ANGA Cable from abroad.

The highlights of the congress which takes place alongside the exhibition are the German Strategy Summit and the International Broadband Summit. Participants will include top level representatives from Alcatel-Lucent, Cable Labs, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Eutelsat, Kabel Baden-Württemberg, Kabel Deutschland, Liberty Global, Motorola, NetCologne, ProSiebenSat.1, SES Astra, Unitymedia, YouSee, and ZDF. All 20 congress events will be translated simultaneously (German/English).

The Dutch broadband market grew by 0.8 percent or 38,300 net additions during the third quarter of 2009, to reach 5.996 million connections on 30 September, despite DSL losing 12,700 customers, according to Telecompaper’s Dutch Broadband Q3 2009 report. The number of DSL connections dropped by 0.4 percent during the quarter, to reach a total of 3.542 million on 30 September 2009. At the same time, cable broadband reported 1.5 percent growth to 2.294 million customers, and FTTH broadband saw its customer base grow by almost 12 percent to around 160,000.

The Dutch broadband (including FTTH) penetration per household increased to 82.2 percent at the end of Q3 2009, growing by 2.4 percentage points compared to the end of the third quarter a year earlier. Penetration per 100 inhabitants increased to 36.2 percent at the end of the third quarter, compared with 35.1 percent on 30 September 2008.

Of all broadband ISPs, cable network operator Ziggo reported the largest quarterly net additions with 18,000, followed by DSL provider Tele2 Netherlands with 15,000 and cable network operator UPC Netherlands with 14,500. Ziggo is still the largest broadband provider in the Netherlands with 1.418 million customers on 30 September, followed by Internet van KPN with 1.161 million DSL customers and UPC with 707,900 customers at the end of Q3 2009. UPC extended its lead over the number four player, KPN subsidiary and DSL provider Het Net, which lost 11,000 customers during the quarter to end at 670,000 DSL users. Tele2 remains number five in the Dutch broadband ISP rankings, winning 15,000 net additions during the third quarter to end September 2009 with 390,500 DSL customers.

We read this article in Broadbandignite.

At this time of year we’re all evaluating the current year’s results and planning how best to move forward in 2010. Overall IP communications growth has been very positive.

I’m sure that many of you have seen the Infonetics report indicating significant growth in VoIP and unified communications – with revenue exceeding $21 billion in the first half of 2009. They forecast that the second half of 2009 will top $22 billion—7.3 percent growth in just six months.

Many of us have experienced similar growth rates in our businesses. We are all well positioned to leverage this growing demand for IP-based communication services.

At BroadSoft we are very pleased with where we’ll end 2009—most likely up 26 percent year-over-year in shipped lines. More encouraging is comparing that result to PBX shipments, which are down about 20 percent.

These statistics reflect a shift in the communications industry. End-users are seeking more interactive, advanced communication solutions. BroadSoft has kept pace with solutions that are designed to delight the end-user.

As we prepare for 2010, it’s a good time to share our thoughts on the current environment and our strategies for moving the communications industry forward. There are key indicators that IP communications solutions are the future of our industry.


Read the whole story.

Virgin Media’s next generation set-top boxes are to run a converged television and broadband platform developed for the cablenet by the US DVR specialist TiVo. The UK cablenet is following in the footsteps of US counterparts Comcast and Cox, which are currently testing the technology in a number of markets. In a mutually exclusive agreement, TiVo will run both middleware and user interfaces on Virgin’s HD receivers. At the same time, Virgin will become the exclusive distributor of TiVo services and technology that had otherwise disappeared from the UK market.

It is expected that SeaChange International’s TV Navigator will continue to be used on SD and HD receivers following the extension of its contract through until at least 2011. Broadband TV News understands that TiVo is likely to be used on a dedicated receiver model, TV Navigator continuing on current and future deployments of the standard and V+ (DVR) receivers. Virgin anticipates that its first branded TiVo product will appear during 2010.

• North America consumes the most YouTube videos followed closely by the Middle East and Africa;
• Africa uses Skype more often than any other region worldwide;
• Bit Torrent is the dominant peer-to-peer file sharing application by numbers of users and total bytes worldwide, however in Caribbean and Latin America, Ares protocol is most popular; and
• Asia-Pacific subscribers have the largest appetite for real-time entertainment.