The Broadband Forum announced the latest broadband and IPTV statistics, which show impressive growth in the face of the global economic downturn. Its report, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic shows that broadband grew by 16.6 million lines globally in the last quarter alone, with more than three million being added across North America - while IPTV continues to expand strongly.

Broadband lines in the world now top 429.2 million and the last quarter shows growth slightly higher than the previous three month period. Twenty countries grew by 10 percent or more in that time. The biggest growth in the top 20 came from India at 13.4 percent, while the other large gainers were Ukraine (15.2 percent), Egypt (10.6 percent) and Mexico (10.3 percent). Of the total figure, North America grew 3.87 percent to more than 93.5 million.

North America was again a major factor in the continued IPTV success story, with impressive growth of more than 15 percent over the last quarter and a huge 94.2 percent year-on-year improvement. There are now nearly 4.5 million lines of IPTV across North America.

In terms of technology, DSL continues to be the most popular broadband access technology, although fiber grew by more than three million lines to reflect a 12.4 percent share of the market, while wireless showed a healthy proportionate increase of over one million lines to a total of 5.58 million.

"This report shows that despite the economic situation the world is facing, the demand for both broadband and IPTV continues at pace as people everywhere look to improve the quality and speed of their communications," said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum.

"The Forum continues to drive broadband innovation, and with the release of BroadbandSuite 3.0, which provides new IPTV management and fiber integration tools, we continue to ensure that the industry has all the tools and specifications it needs to optimize networks and to capture the full potential of broadband worldwide. Our capability is enhanced by the recent union with the IP/MPLS Forum, which gives us a much greater end-to-end capability to serve the industry."