MUMBAI: Fixed broadband subscribers in Asia-Pacific region are expected to grow at 17.3 per cent to touch 182 million users by 2009, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan.

The billing amount is expected to jump 13.3 per cent to reach $44.9 billion.

Frost & Sullivan analyst Adeel Najam expects that fixed broadband will continue to grow even though mobile broadband is on rise. The various government initiatives in rolling-out their national broadband ambitions such as Malaysia‘s high-speed broadband (HSBB) project, Australia‘s national broadband network (NBN) and Singapore‘s iN2015 masterplan will help the broadband growth.

After the completion of the various broadband projects in Asia Pacific countries, the fixed internet broadband users will touch 212.6 million by 2010, says study.

The study further states that, the broadband subscriber base in the region covering 14 Asia Pacific countries including Japan will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1 per cent annually, and will hit 342.9 million subscribers (from 2009-2014). The revenue to grow in the same period is estimated approximately at $69 billion.

"The bulk of bandwidth growth and network roll-outs in the next few years will be driven by fibre-to-the-node deployments aided mainly by government spending on national high-speed broadband projects. Services such as Web 2.0, social networking, file-sharing, online gaming, as well as falling computer prices and availability of low-cost netbooks have also added impetus towards broadband consumption," Najam says.

China had the most fixed broadband users with 83.4 million (53.8 per cent of the region‘s total subscriber base), followed by Japan with 30 million and South Korea with 15.5 million in 2008.

Najam says, as mobile broadband is considered a threat to fixed broadband services, both wireless and wireline broadband should be viewed as complementing technology to offer subscribers with blended services.