Fiber growth rate outpaces cable and DSL

For the first time the annual growth percentage of fiber outpaced both DSL and cable world wide. Unfortuantely for Americans, this growth is largely be attributed to deployments outside of the US.

“It’s a significant milestone for fiber-optic broadband; where it is available consumers will take fiber over other broadband technologies,” said Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic.  In three to five years it will pass cable, and that it will be about 10 years before it becomes bigger than DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), he said. That is, unless something happens to make it possible for DSL to keep up with bandwidth demands.

Currently there are 42 million fiber broadband users worldwide, compared to 79.6 million cable and 238 million DSL subscribers. “DSL is adding more subscribers than fiber in absolute numbers, but not in percentage growth,” said Johnson. (Network World)