Growth of DSL subscribers goes past 150 million worldwide

DSL has been growing for years, and now has surpassed the 150 million subscriber mark worldwide. DSL has been helping to kill the dialup market, and now the decline becomes inevitable. DSL subsribers are being attracted to the service based on competitive introductory rates and higher data transmission speeds that dialup. Cable companies once enjoyed a huge margin over DSL, but that's changing now.

Demand for DSL is high throughout the world, particularly in China, which has added 10 million subscribers in the last 12 months alone. China joined Germany and France as countries with over 10 million DSL subscribers. The global growth in DSL didn't stop there. The Middle East and Africa both saw a doubling of subscribers in the last 12 months.

Of the established nations, with more than one million DSL subscribers as at 31 March 2006, India topped the percentage growth ranking, increasing its subscriber base by more than 700% in twelve months. Significant subscriber increases were also made in Turkey (190% increase), Mexico (99%) and Australia (84.6%). Pakistan growth (484%) led the way in countries with less than one million DSL subscribers, with Morocco, Greece and Bulgaria all experiencing DSL growth of more than 200%.

DSL remains a vital part of the broadband revolution. For many people in certain countries, the cable companies do not exist, or if they do, offer a competitive broadband solution. For these reasons DSL internet access promises to be viable for the forseeable future.