Report: Global broadband sub growth slows in Q4
April 19, 2024
In Q4 2023, global fixed broadband connections reached 1.43 billion, following a quarterly growth of 0.96 per cent. Point Topic, the broadband market intelligence provider, recorded a decline in fixed broadband subscriptions in 18 countries, down from 21 in Q3 2023.
Some of these markets have high mobile subscriber penetration, others are experiencing high inflation and / or are already highly saturated markets, for example – Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco and Italy. Yet others are at war.
Key points:
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As the economic and geopolitical uncertainty continues, the global quarterly growth rate was the lowest since 2019. Given the size of its market, a much slower than usual growth in China had its impact. The highest growth came from the developing and least saturated markets.
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The share of FTTH/B in the total fixed broadband subscriptions increased further and stood at 69.5 per cent. Broadband connections based on other technologies saw their market shares shrink again, with an exception of satellite.
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Year-on-year, FTTH/B connections grew in double figures (+10.3 per cent). FWA was another technology group that saw annual growth (+6.6 per cent), while subscribers over other platforms declined. Cable saw a rather surprising drop, especially in North America.
- Among the largest twenty markets all but two recorded fixed broadband subscriber growth in Q4 2023. Italy and Canada recorded a decline in subscribers as the figures migrating to fibre broadband were not sufficient to compensate for copper and cable based subscriber churn.
- The highest FTTH/B broadband subscriber growth rates in Q4 2023 were in Algeria, Belgium, Peru, Pakistan and UK, all of which recorded growth in double figures.
Jolanta Stanke, Research Director at Point Topic, concluded: Overall, our analysis confirms a persistent shift of consumers towards more reliable, symmetric bandwidth, ultrafast broadband options like FTTH/B. Meanwhile, traditional technologies like copper and even cable-based broadband are seeing a decline. This trend continues as providers aim to satisfy the ever growing demand for faster and more dependable broadband services and to enhance the value of their networks.