According to the latest edition of the World Broadband report from Telecompaper, the number of broadband subscribers in the third quarter soared to over 187.8 million with more than 15.6 million new subscribers since the second quarter of 2005. Asia-Pacific region, with more than 71 million subscribers is still the largest broadband market. South Korea has the highest penetration per 100 inhabitants with 24.50, but others are closing in. The Netherlands comes second with a penetration of 23.50, followed by Denmark with 22.23 percent. At the end September, there were seven countries with more than 50 percent penetration per household, including Hong Kong, South Korea, Israel, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Singapore and Denmark. Asia-Pacific, with 5.55 million, followed by Europe, has been the biggest region in terms of nominal subscriber gain followed by the Americas and Middle East- Africa. Europe added 5.48 million broadband subscribers, almost the same as in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time the Asia-Pacific region with 8.39 percent registered the lowest relative quarterly gain compared to the other regions. Europe, with 10.5 percent quarterly growth, is the second largest broadband market in the world. Europe is followed by the Americas with 4.4 million net gain and 8.44 percent quarterly growth.
