© 2010 Rapid TV News
Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 15-12-2009
Analysts at SNL Kagan say that Western Europe’s broadband prospects have taken a hit this past year or so, and not helped by the widespread economic downturn.
Kagan say that for Western European broadband, the mounting recessionary and competitive pressures contributed to a significant drop in subscriber net-additions during the first half of 2009.
The top 10 fixed broadband providers only saw an average of less than 1.4 million net additions per quarter, compared to 1.9 million per quarter during 2007/2008. Germany’s United Internet and Vodafone were the only operators in the top 10 to accelerate their rate of subscriber additions, due to the acquisitions of Freenet AG and Arcor, respectively.
The SNL Kagan report also looked at subscriber growth over a 10-quarter period (Q4 2006-Q2 2009). On an absolute scale, Deutsche Telecom (DT) added more broadband subscribers from Q4 2006 to Q2 2009 than any other ISP in the region, accounting for 22% of all top 10 operator net additions, or 4.1 million.
France’s Iliad and SFR were the fastest growing operators during that period, each with a compound quarterly growth rate (CQGR) of 6.7%. Germany’s Vodafone and DT followed with a CQGR of 5.2% and 4.7%, respectively.
© Rapid TV News 2009
