ABI Research Predicts Global Broadband Service Revenue to Reach $251 Billion by 2018

ABI research recently released a report that predicted that the overall fixed broadband service revenue is expected to grow to $251 billion by 2018. The report found that in 2012 the fixed broadband market which includes DSL, cable, and fiber-optic services generated revenue of $188 billion which is a seven percent increase from 2011.

In a statement, Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting ABI Research (News - Alert), while explaining that global broadband ARPU has continued to decline across all broadband platforms over the past few years, said that,  “The trend is expected to endure as the majority of operators are trying to offer lower prices to capture a larger market share. In some countries like Japan and South Korea, increasing competition from LTE (News - Alert) services is expected to pressure fixed broadband operators to offer lower service pricing in the long-term.”

Fiber-optic broadband service revenue in 2012 experienced the best year-over-year growth of 24 percent, while DSL and cable broadband markets grew two percent and six percent. During the forecast period, fiber-optic broadband is expected to expand a lot faster and more substantially than other platforms. Forecasts for FTTH revenue in 2018 is expected to touch $81.6 billion which amounts to close to one-third of global broadband service revenue.

Khin Sandi Lynn, research analyst said that, “As more consumers tend to get super-fast broadband which supports online video gaming and HD video services, FTTH adoption will continue to grow. ABI Research forecast that United States FTTH revenue will reach $4 billion at the end of 2013.”

Fixed broadband market across the United States grew to $43 billion in 2012 from the previous $41 billion in 2011. Fiber-optic broadband at present represents seven percent of the total broadband revenue in United States. What’s worth noting here however, is that Verizon (News - Alert), a FTTH operator, saw a 3.1 percent increase in broadband revenue thanks to increased adoption of its FTTH service, FiOS.