Research Firm Point Topic has found that the worldwide number of broadband subscribers has now exceeded 400 million, growing nearly 7000 times over the last decade.
Most of the users are on DSL broadband with 45 million broadband users on fiber optic and a roughly similar number on cable.
New technologies have since emerged with IPTV, VoIP, Triple and Quad Play and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) hitting the headlines in the broadband sector.
Saturation point has almost been reached in most developed countries with an average annual growth rate of 8 percent while developing countries in Point Topic's survey were all expected to add 1.5x their current number of subscribers by 2013.
Oliver Johnson, senior analyst at Point Topic, said that: "Now we are in the early days of a new era, which is going to be much more about quality than quantity. The emphasis is going to shift to providing high-bandwidth, high-quality broadband that can deliver multiple, steady, pin-sharp images for applications."
Nearly 17 million UK households have accessed to Internet according to the Office of National Statistics with an expected 18.4 million broadband lines used by 2009.
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