By the middle of 2020 there were 1.136 billion fixed broadband connections globally. After the onset of the pandemic, the quarterly growth in connections recovered. The importance of connectivity became all the more apparent with a significant number of people working from home and spending more time online. North America accounts for less than 12% of the global market in terms of connections.
In the second quarter of 2020, just over half of all net additions in fixed broadband subscribers came from East Asia, which accounts for over 47% of the market, with the rest of Asia taking that to 57%. China alone added 9.2 million, although that was fewer than in the same quarter the previous year, while it added 60 million 5G customers.
The number of broadband subscribers grew in 80% of over 130 countries covered in the latest figures from Point Topic in its quarterly Global Broadband Statistics report.
North America accounts for less than 12% of the global market in terms of fixed connections. The United States has around 116 million. Western Europe represents over 15%, with the rest of Europe accounting for another 6%.
The number of copper lines globally fell by 11.7% between the middle of 2019 and mid-2020, while fibre to the home connections grew by 11.4%.