DSL Forum acclaims Middle East and Africa broadband growing faster than any region in the world

Mersh cited analyst Point Topic's published figures that confirm that the number of broadband subscribers in Middle East and Africa grew by 38% in 2006, while the number of those subscribers using DSL access technology grew by 81.9% to 4.3 million.

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon have the highest broadband penetration, with almost half the households in Qatar having broadband access, 28.87% in the United Arab Emirates and 22.5% in Lebanon. Turkey has the most DSL subscribers in the region and almost doubled the number in 2006 to 2.9million. Tunisia, Egypt and Qatar all increased the number of subscribers in their respective countries by over 100%, while in the United Arab Emirates, the number of DSL subscribers grew by 63.45% to 207,080.

'The rapidly emerging markets in the Middle East are a testimony to how global standards are improving speed to market,' said Mersh.

'DSL access technology is by far the most popular access technology, accounting for almost 88% of broadband subscribers in the Middle East. New applications, such as supporting IPTV offerings to customers and DSL used for mobile backhaul for cellular providers, are only going to fuel this growth further.'

'We are pleased to be here at Arabcom to continue educating the market about the latest in DSL Forum architecture and management specifications, to ensure that service providers here have the tools they need to build out superior networks, well capable of delivering all the multimedia applications they envision.'

Visitors to the DSL Forum booth (A1) will be able to meet with Forum representatives and learn more about their work.