According to the Broadband Forum, global broadband subscribers have hit a historic milestone with 400 million worldwide subscribers. In 1998, only 57,200 broadband subscribers were using high-speed connections around the world.

Within the next year, that number jumped to 280,890 subscribers worldwide with DSL becoming the most popular broadband option. Over the last ten years, broadband use has grown 600,000% with a growth rate of 300% in the last five years.

"The emphasis is now going to shift to providing high bandwidth, high quality broadband, that can deliver multiple, steady, pin-sharp images for applications. To do this, we've got to have advanced global standards for end-to-end delivery of broadband data streams. This is exactly what the Broadband Forum, working with other standards organizations, is doing, and we believe its role is going to be even more important in the next decade than it has been in the last ten years," adds Oliver.

Via Broadband Forum