The U.S. has shown significant growth in both broadband and IPTV (News - Alert) adoption this year, but still follows China?s lead as the forerunner of global technology adoption.

By Erin Harrison
Senior Editor of TMCnet (http://migre.me/72gp)
September 09, 2009

The Broadband Forum today announced the latest broadband and IPTV statistics, which show a ?strong performance? in the U.S. in both broadband growth at 18 percent and in IPTV adoption, where subscription grew a whopping 86 percent over the last 12 months.

Based on data prepared for the by industry analyst Point Topic, global broadband grew by 12.9 million lines in the second quarter of 2009, while IPTV growth remained strong at 11 percent, reaching 26.9 million lines.

According to Broadband Forum (News - Alert) officials, broadband lines in the world now top 444.2 million. North America had total growth of 3.63 per cent and the U.S. and Canada between them now have more than 95 million broadband users. In Latin America broadband now serves more than 29 million customers. Brazil, one of the global top 10 countries for broadband, showed solid gains at 4.02 percent ? taking them to 23.3 percent growth over the year, accounting for more than 10 million of the region?s users.

Yet China still accounts for the majority of broadband lines in the world and a massive 93 million customers, with the U.S. following in second place with 86 million customers as of the second quarter of 2009. Canada shows the fewest deployments, with approx. 9.6 million broadband customers.

In terms of technology, Broadband Forum officials said, fiber and wireless broadband continue to gain access technology market share. Consumer demand for IPTV seems to be driving the rollout of higher bandwidth options.

?This report shows that, while broadband adoption is not immune from the state of the world economy, the technology continues to move forward and I believe this year has shown that broadband expansion is not limited to the top industrialized countries, but is a key factor in assisting developing nations to gain a foothold in today?s tough market,? said George Dobrowski (News - Alert), chairman and president of the Fremont, Calif.-based Broadband Forum.

Strategy Analytics announced this week in its latest market research Multiplay Market Dynamics service report titled, ?United States IPTV Market Sizing: 2009-2013,? that the U.S. IPTV market segment is expected to have 15.5 million subscribers and $15 billion in service revenues by 2013.