France Telecom's Wanadoo has emerged as Europe's largest provider of broadband internet services, new research from Telecompaper shows. With over 6 million subscribers across four countries at the end of the third quarter of 2005, the French company holds more than a 10 percent share of the European market.
The rankings remain dominated by incumbent players with large market shares in their home countries, Telecompaper's research brief on the European broadband market shows. Deutsche Telecom is the second-largest provider with almost 5 million subscribers across five countries, over 80 percent of which are in its home country Germany. Telecom Italia and Telefonica rank respectively third and fourth in terms of subscriber numbers, followed closely by the only newcomer in the top five, AOL.
Chello is the only truly pan-European ISP with a presence in 13 countries and a top-five position in all but two of its markets. Tiscali meanwhile is struggling to gain a strong position in its core markets amid fierce competition from the incumbents.
The total number of broadband subscribers in Europe rose to 57.88 million at the end of September 2005, an increase of 60 percent compared to a year earlier, according to research by Telecompaper.
