85 million broadband accesses in Western Europe in 2Q07: DSL still most popular wirebased broadband access while FTTx gains momentum

Stuttgart, Germany - 26th October, 2007 - According to the newest InfoCom's findings, the independent market analyst specialist, at end of 2Q07, while number of broadband connections (DSL, cable modem and fibre optic) reached more than 85 million in Western Europe, FTTx is slowly gaining momentum as the fastest broadband technology.
In almost all countries, DSL is the most popular wire-based broadband technology with a share of over 83%, followed by cable modem with about 15% and fibre optic with 1.7%. Despite having still a small share of the broadband market, FTTx is gaining momentum, showing the strong-est growth rate, with 7.7%, during the second quarter 2007. At present, broadband via fibre optic access plays a more relevant role in Scandinavian countries especially Sweden (15.1%), Denmark (8.4%) and Norway (6.5%).

The split between major broadband technologies is virtually unchanged in the Top-5 countries in Western Europe - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, accounting for 74% of total broadband connections in Western Europe in 2Q07 - with DSL share slightly increasing in Spain, Italy and the UK, while in Germany shows the strongest increase of broadband connec-tions (+5.6%) per quarter.

The Netherlands is still the most "broadband" country in Europe - with a penetration of over 34% - followed by Denmark (34%), Switzerland (30%) and a group of Scandinavian countries lead by Norway (29%), Finland (29%) and Sweden (27%).

About Broadband Quarterly Monitoring Service:
The Broadband Quarterly Monitoring is currently available on a yearly subscription basis. It provides a large amount of indicators - among which ULL lines, DSL & FTTx, CaTV and cable modem subscribers, ARPU - for over 30 countries worldwide, with forecasts until 2012. Broadband Quarterly Monitoring is only one of several Quarterly Monitoring Services that InfoCom provides. To know more, please contact us.

About InfoCom:
InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with almost 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom's independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.