Global DSL lines top 35 million

Worldwide DSL penetration reached 35.9 million in 2002, almost doubling in one year, according to new figures released by the DSL Forum.

The U.S. holds the top spot of DSL lines provisioned with 6.45 million lines, but South Korea is hot on America’s tail with 6.43 million. North America’s DSL growth was about half that of the global average, at about 48%, due to big surges in deployments in Western Europe and South and East Asian.

DSL penetration in the U.S. is still among the lowest of among major markets with only 3.4% of all households having a digitized line, most of which is explained by stiff competition from cable. South Korea, on the other hand, led the world with 28.3% penetration, followed by Taiwan with 15.8%, Hong Kong with 10.29% and Belgium with 10.26%.

The DSL Forum expects deployments to accelerate now that new standards such as ADSL2 and SDSL are ready for commercial deployment in most countries. In addition, the rapid adoption of DSL among developing countries should kick up global numbers in coming years.

Of North America’s 8.2 million subscribers, 15.7% are business customers, above the world average of 13.9%.