MUMBAI: A survey by Digital TV Research has revealed that the need for speed as people make increased use of over-the-top (OTT) and managed IPTV services will drive the fixed broadband market to reach 745 million homes by 2017.

The survey called Fixed Broadband Household Forecasts says this will be a significant rise from the 473 million homes in 2010 and the 578 million expected by the end of 2012. In other words, global fixed broadband household penetration will be 49.2 per cent by 2017. It was 33.5 per cent in 2010 and 40.3 per cent by the end of this year.

According to the study, China will continue to be the top nation by fixed broadband households in 2017, with 251 million homes, while the US is likely to retain second place with 101 million homes.

Another revelation of the survey was that three-quarters of fixed broadband households received download speeds of less than 10Mbps in 2010, with only 2.3 per cent above 30Mbps. It is expected that the under 10Mbps proportion will have fallen to 58 per cent by the end of 2012, and to drop to 31 per cent by 2017. The percentage of homes getting faster than 30Mbps speed is projected reach 7.2 per cent by end-2012, rapidly advancing to more than a quarter of the total by 2017.

The author of the reported Simon Murray has been quoted as saying, "Perhaps just as interesting as the overall increase in fixed broadband household numbers is the shift of homes subscribing to faster download speeds. Many governments have initiated national broadband network projects, which involve extensive capital expenditure to build out modern (usually fibre) networks. In other countries, greater competition has encouraged operators to construct fibre networks from their own initiatives."