Broadband subscription growth rebounds to hit 1.6 billion

According to Point Topic, growth returned to something closer to the pace seen through most of 2025, following a sharp slowdown to 0.46% in Q4 2025.  

The rebound was concentrated in South and East Asia, which supplied 62.6% of the quarter's net additions, largely because China's subscriber base grew again after contracting in the previous quarter.  

India remained the fastest-growing large market by some distance, adding 5.91% quarter-on-quarter and 28.33% year-on-year. The market in Argentina also grew significantly, up by 4.71% in the quarter and 12.5% year-on-year. 

Point Topic said fibre extended its lead over other technologies, edging past 73.9% of global subscribers, while cable, copper, and partial-fibre connections all continued to contract. Several US operators stopped reporting legacy copper subscriber figures. 

Wireless (mainly FWA) and satellite subscribers grew fastest of all technologies in percentage terms (+6.61% and +11.02% quarter-on-quarter respectively), though both remain a small fraction of the global base. 

The report also highlighted that Western Europe and North America combined the highest penetration (42.6% and 40.5% of the population respectively) with the slowest growth, consistent with largely saturated markets, while the Middle East and Africa combined the lowest penetration (9.2%) with growth among the fastest of any region.  

China remains the largest market by a wide margin, with nearly 700 million subscribers at the end of Q1 2026, followed by the United States and India.  

A report by Christy Swords, the former Director of Change at ITV Broadcasting, recently highlighted that switching off Freeview in the 2030s would be far more complex, costly, and risky than the UK’s digital TV switchover. Discover more here.