Fast Net News, DSL Prime, DOCSIS Report

16M net adds to 600M. Ukraine saw 27% annual growth to 5.5M connections according to the latest figures from Point-Topic and the Broadband Forum. Some highlights:

• China, Russia, Brazil and India as well as Ukraine. All grew between 18% and 27% in a year. Circled in red on the chart below.
• Chinese growth continues extraordinary. 6.8M in the quarter, 26.3M for the year.
• At current growth rates, Russia will pass France within the year and Germany in about two years to reach #4 in the world, behind China, the U.S. and Japan. 
• DSL had 4 times as many net adds as cable.
• Point-Topic has 21M net adds for FTTx for the year and only 3M FTTH. The only way that figure makes sense is if a huge percentage of China's connections are fiber to the basement and some kind of copper to the apartment, included in FTTx. I'm checking with them if that is so. 
• Quarterly growth of about 16M is similar to the prior quarter. 
• Italy and Spain were below the European average, consistent with economic problems. But the difference is slight, one more datapoint that broadband is becoming so crucial that most people will pay whatever it takes to be connected. 

 Thanks as always to the Forum and the ever invaluable Point-Topic.