Countries throughout the Asia Pacific region are seeing increasing broadband subscriber numbers, as well as movement towards higher speed services.  Recent announcements from Taiwan and Vietnam demonstrate this.

After a disappointing fourth quarter of 2009, China’s broadband subscriber net-adds posted impressive sequential growth of 57 percent in the ?rst quarter of 2010, according to iSuppli Corp.

The broadband market in the United States is one of the most mature in the world and its growth appears to be slowing as most people who are able to get broadband services already have them.

We have been noting the increases in broadband subscriber numbers around the world, but carriers also are increasing the speed of their offerings, frequently without increasing the price.  The speed increases, along with the growing number of broadband subscribers, is helping to drive the exploding bandwidth demand being seen in many markets.

There are many ways to measure the health of the submarine fiber optic cable market.  In the NewsFeed, we have been tracking a number of indicators including new contract awards, the financial health of large carriers, the demand for Internet bandwidth and the number of broadband subscribers.  All of them, in their own way, can be barometers of the industry’s health.

We recently noted a major bandwidth sale in Russia, as national operator Rostelecom doubled the capacity of Internet links it provides for regional operator Far East Telecom (FET) to 7.3 Gbps (see Submarine Cable World NewsFeed for August 9, 2010).  This is not the only recent bandwidth sale in Russia as the country’s Internet market continues to explode.

Ireland’s broadband subscriptions (fixed and mobile) continued to increase, to reach a total of 1,509,934 at the end of March 2010, according to the country’s telecom regulator. This is a 4.6% increase over the total at the end of 2009.

We have been noting the increasing demand in many countries for Internet capacity.  In this Market Snapshot, we will look at announcements of capacity sales as well as a prediction for future growth.

More carriers are reporting their financial results for the period ending June 30, and in this Market Snapshot we will look at the results from a sampling of European carriers.  Continuing the trend we noted in an earlier Snapshot, the results continue to be solid if not spectacular.

Taiwan’s international Internet bandwidth saw another huge jump in the second quarter of 2010, as demand for Internet services continues to reach new heights.