DIVVYING UP DSL

Ovum Research projects that more than 200 million DSL connections will populate networks worldwide by 2007, which would make the access technology as ubiquitous as mobile voice is today. In a study released earlier this year called “DSL Strategies for Next Generation Services,” Ovum reported significant surges in DSL adoption throughout all regions of the world between 2003 and 2005. By 2007, the number of lines in North America is expected to increase tenfold. Yet in other regions of the world, that order of magnitude is expected to be far greater.

Figure 1

Pick your flavor

According to Ovum, asymmetrical DSL will maintain its worldwide dominance over the other flavors of DSL, but in 2006 the fledgling very high bit-rate DSL will make significant surges.

Figure 2

Sunken pipes

Five years of intense network buildouts have resulted in a more than twenty-fold increase in both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific bandwidth, according to TeleGeography's latest submarine bandwidth study. And despite the economic hardships besetting ultra-long haul carriers, TeleGeography expects that growth spurt to continue, although somewhat abated.

Figure 3