The European cable industry has grown the market for broadband internet services via cable by 22% year-on-year. The figures were released by the trade association Cable Europe and its research partner Screen Digest.
Cablenets are counting on their fibre-coax networks in order to compete against the telco sector. A statement from Cable Europe emphasised that unlike the so-called alternative service providers, cable did not need to use the network of the incumbent telcos in order to rollout their service.
“Telecom regulators focus on designing rules to give alternative service providers access to the incumbent network,” said Caroline van Weede, managing director, Cable Europe. “Given the clear customer appeal of cable, we are asking regulators to take into account the dynamics and investments in cable and infrastructure based competition.”
Cable broadband services were in 15.6 million homes at the end of 2007, compared to 12.8 million at the end of 2006.
