Tom's Hardware > News > Special > Miscellaneous > World DSL lines close in on 100 million in 2004

World DSL lines close in on 100 million in 2004

12:54 - Sunday 13 March 2005 by Wolfgang Gruener - source: Tom's Hardware

The number of DSL lines worldwide increased by almost 60 percent to 96.9 million in the 12 months to 31 December 2004. This marked an absolute increase of over 35 million lines during 2004, according to a report published by market research firm Point Topic.

China extended its lead as the world’s biggest DSL country, with more than 17.1 million lines. It added over 4.4 million DSL lines in the second half of 2004, almost twice as many as the number of lines added by second placed USA - which reached 13.7 million lines at end-2004. Japan is still keeping up with the pace in third place - adding almost 1.3 million lines to reach 13.3 million lines respectively.

Elsewhere, and in Europe growth of DSL continues to be strong, with France, UK, Germany and Italy all adding over 1 million lines. France was the leading European country adding over 1.6 million lines in the second half of 2004 with a total of almost 6.3 million DSL lines by end-2004. France looks set to overtake fifth placed Germany (with 6.7 million lines) in 2005, Point Topic said.

In terms of percentage growth, Turkey was the most dynamic country in 2004 - growing by over 175 percent in the second half of 2004 to reach almost 500,000 DSL lines. Poland was also impressive growing by almost 130 percent to reach 631,000 lines by end-2004. The UK is continuing to show promising growth at over 50 percent, passing 4 million lines and being the only country with over 1m lines featuring in the ’top ten’ for percentage growth.

In terms of DSL penetration per 100 population, the Point Topic’s statistics show Korea is continuing to be caught up by the other countries in the rankings. Taiwan is edging close to equalling and possible overtaking Korea for first place with 13.86 lines compared to Korea 14.24 lines per 100 population.

The Scandinavian countries are also achieving high levels of penetration with Norway climbing to third place with 12.34 lines and Denmark in fourth with 11.89 lines per 100 population. (THG)