Q2 2026 Fixed Broadband Subscribers: Growth Slows as FTTP Approaches 75% of Lines
In Q2 2026, the number of fixed broadband subscribers worldwide grew by 0.8% to 1.608 billion, an increase of 12.8 million on the previous quarter.[1] This was slower than the 1.07% recorded in Q1 2026 and the 1.12% of Q2 2025, though well above the 0.46% of Q4 2025, when China reported a decline. Over the year, the global total rose by 3.9% (60 million). South and East Asia again accounted for more than half of global net adds. FTTP providers added 15.2 million subscribers and they now account for 74.4% of all fixed broadband lines, while copper, FTTx and cable continued to decline.[2]
[1] Figures cover fixed broadband subscribers in the 124 countries in Point Topic's GBS dataset. They include Point Topic estimates where operators or regulators do not report, and earlier quarters may be restated as new data becomes available. Global and regional totals are the sum of country figures; growth rates and net adds are calculated from the quarterly subscriber figures.
[2] Technology Groups: FTTP (fibre to the premises) includes FTTH, FTTB and FTTB+LAN. FTTx (fibre to the cabinet or node, with a copper or other final connection) includes VDSL, FTTN+VDSL/VDSL2, G.fast (cabinet), FTTx+LAN and unspecified FTTx. Cable includes cable modem, HFC and DOCSIS 3.0/3.1. Copper covers xDSL (ADSL and DSL). Wireless covers fixed wireless access (FWA), including 5G FWA, LTE fixed, WiFi and WiMAX. Others includes LAN, 'Other' and 'Unknown'.
Key points
Global subscribers reached 1.608 billion in Q2 2026, up 0.8% (12.8 million) on Q1 2026 and 3.9% (60 million) on Q2 2025.
Quarterly growth slowed from 1.07% in Q1 2026. Excluding China, growth fell to 0.97%, the lowest rate in the six quarters we cover.
South and East Asia supplied 53.9% of global net adds, Latin America - 17.4%; Western Europe and Asia-Pacific each grew by less than 0.3% q-o-q.
China, India and the USA added the most subscribers in the quarter while Iran and Indonesia recorded the largest losses.
Among countries with at least 1 million subscribers, Kenya grew fastest year on year (47.3%), followed by India (24.9%) and Pakistan (24.6%), all from low household penetration.
FTTP added 70 million subscribers over the year (+6.2%), while copper lost 10.3 million (-17.4%), FTTx 10.9 million (-8.0%) and cable 6.4 million (-3.9%).
Wireless (mainly FWA) grew by 30.1% year on year, and satellite by 48.8% (from a relatively small base).
Global fixed broadband subscriber growth slowed to 0.8% in Q2 2026
In Q2 2026, global fixed broadband subscribers grew by 0.8% to 1.608 billion (Figure 1). Net adds of 12.8 million were down from 16.9 million in Q1 2026 and below the average of 15.4 million a quarter since Q2 2025. Quarterly growth has ranged from 0.46% to 1.49% over the period, with Q3 2025 the strongest quarter (23 million net adds) and Q4 2025 the weakest (7.2 million).
Is the slowdown simply a China effect? The data suggests not. China saw its subscriber base grow by 0.58% in Q2 2026, down from 0.89% in Q1 2026, and accounted for 31.7% of global net adds. Excluding China, global growth slowed to 0.97% from 1.21% in Q1 2026, 1.27% in Q4 2025 and 1.44% in Q3 2025. This is the lowest rate in the six quarters we cover, and it has been dropping in each quarter since Q3 2025. Declines in Iran and Indonesia (a combined loss of 0.8 million subscribers) and smaller additions in India and Brazil appear to account for much of the change. We will see next quarter whether this is a temporary dip or a more lasting deceleration.
Regional trends: South and East Asia and Latin America drive global growth
South and East Asia remains by far the largest region, with 815.4 million subscribers, or 50.7% of the global total (Table 1).[1] It added 6.9 million subscribers in Q2 2026 (up 0.85%), or 53.9% of global net adds, though this was down from 10.4 million in Q1 2026. Latin America was again the fastest-growing region, adding 2.2 million subscribers in the quarter (up 1.63%) and 9.3 million over the year (up 7.1%). Middle East and Africa followed, with quarterly growth of 1.14% (+1 million subscribers) and annual growth of 6.4% (+5.4 million).
[1] In our dataset, South and East Asia comprises China, India, Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, Viet Nam, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives; Asia-Pacific comprises Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and New Caledonia.
Table 1: Regional trends in fixed broadband subscribers. Source: Point Topic.
On the other hand, growth in the more mature regions was slow. Asia-Pacific was up 0.25% q-o-q, Western Europe 0.27%, Eastern Europe 0.69%, and North America 0.77%. Four out of seven regions added fewer subscribers than in Q1 2026 (Figure 2). No region recorded a net loss in the quarter.
Over the six quarters, the regional mix has shifted only slightly. Latin America's share of the global total rose from 8.4% in Q2 2025 to 8.7% in Q2 2026, Middle East and Africa's from 5.5% to 5.6%, and South and East Asia's from 50.6% to 50.7%. Western Europe's share fell from 11.8% to 11.5%, North America's from 9.9% to 9.8%, and Eastern Europe’s from 5.7% to 5.6%. So growth continues to shift towards the youthful markets of Latin America and the Middle East and Africa.
Country trends: China and India lead additions, while Iran and Indonesia decline
The ten largest markets account for 73.4% of global subscribers (Table 2). China alone has nearly half of the global fixed broadband subscribers, followed by the USA and India. Among the top ten, India grew fastest, by 3.87% in the quarter and 24.9% over the year, while Germany (+0.07%) and the UK (+1,000 subscribers) were broadly flat.
Table 2: Ten largest markets by fixed broadband subscribers. Source: Point Topic.
Over the year, China and India together supplied 50.3% of global net adds, followed by the USA and Brazil (Figure 3).
In total, 18 countries lost subscribers in Q2 2026 and 15 during the year. Iran recorded the largest quarterly loss (-4.2%), its third consecutive decline, as DSL and FWA churn outweighed FTTP gains. Indonesia saw a -2% decline after four quarters of growth. This was due to the incumbent Telkom removing more than 1 million inactive customers. Sri Lanka recorded the largest annual drop (-21.5%) among the countries above the 1m threshold, following a sharp decline in Q4 2025 due to the reporting error by Dialog. Denmark continued a steady decline, as cable and DSL losses outweighed FTTP gains.
Household penetration varies widely. Among countries above the 1 million subscriber threshold, it is lowest in Pakistan (10.2%), India (19.6%) and Kenya (19.9%), all being among the fastest growing markets. At the other end of the range, 15 of the 75 countries show penetration above 100%, including China and the USA. Such unusual figures are often explained by the differences in methodology used by various countries to count households.[1]
[1] Household penetration is subscribers divided by the number of households. Values above 100% (26 countries in total) are likely to reflect business connections in the subscriber count, student or multi occupancy accommodation, more than one subscription per household or differences in household estimates.
Technology trends in broadband subscriber growth: FTTP gains while copper, FTTx and cable decline
FTTP accounted for 74.4% of global subscribers in Q2 2026, up from 72.8% a year earlier (Figure 4). It added 15.2 million subscribers in the quarter (up 1.28%) and 70 million over the year (up 6.21%), taking the total to 1,196 million. Quarterly FTTP net adds were lower than in Q1 2026 (22.4 million), largely because China's FTTP growth fell from 1.7% in Q1 to 0.7% in Q2 (Figure 5).
Having said that, at 2.7% q-o-q FTTP has maintained a healthy growth rate in the US, the second largest broadband market. AT&T alone added nearly 400K FTTP subscribers in the quarter, its fibre footprint now exceeds 39 million locations, and the operator expects to reach more than 60 million by the end of 2030. AT&T reiterated its intention to decommission the large majority of its copper network by the end of 2029.
Meanwhile, copper (xDSL) lost 2.5 million subscribers in the quarter (-4.8%) and 10.3 million over the year (-17.4%), falling to 49.1 million, or 3.1% of the total. The decline is broad-based: copper lines fell over the year in 94 of the 104 countries that had copper subscribers in Q2 2025. FTTx lost 1.7 million subscribers in the quarter (-1.4%) and 10.9 million over the year (-8%), with the largest annual falls in China, the UK and the USA.
Cable continued its steady decline, losing 1.6 million subscribers in the quarter (-1.0%) and 6.4 million over the year (-3.9%). Quarterly cable losses have been between 1.4 million and 2 million in every quarter of the series. The USA saw nearly 2 million annual loss, followed by Brazil and Chile. Only 13 of the 70 countries with cable subscribers recorded annual growth, with Canada, Taiwan and Turkey standing out as the largest markets in this category. Even there, the growth was modest at 1-4% per annum.
Wireless (mainly FWA and 5G/4G FWA) grew by 4.3% in the quarter and 30.1% over the year to 61.2 million subscribers, raising its share of the total from 3.0% to 3.8%. India and the USA together accounted for 83.3% of the annual FWA subscriber gain. Quarterly wireless net adds slowed to 2.5 million from 3.8 million in Q1 2026.
Satellite grew by 9.1% in the quarter and 48.8% over the year (albeit from a small base: 0.7% of the global total). Argentina, the USA and Brazil added the most over the year (400-700K), mainly by Starlink which claimed 12 million subscribers globally. Note that our Starlink satellite broadband figures do not yet include all markets where the company is present, especially the smaller ones.
The technology mix differs markedly by region (Figure 6). FTTP accounts for 91.4% of subscribers in South and East Asia and 83.7% in Asia-Pacific, but 43.3% in Middle East and Africa and 31.1% in North America, where cable still holds 51.1%. Middle East and Africa recorded the largest rise in FTTP share over the year (+6.2 percentage points), while its copper share fell by 5.6 points to 30.5%. Western Europe's FTTP share rose by 5.3 points to 52.6%, though FTTx still accounts for 23.3% of its subscribers. South and East Asia is the only region where the FTTP share fell, but only slightly (-0.2 points), as FWA growth in India outpaced fibre.
FTTP growth is concentrated in a few large markets. The top five (China, the USA, Brazil, the UK and India) added 55.1% of the global FTTP net adds over the year (Figure 7). Copper losses were more equally dispersed, with France, Iran and the USA recording the largest annual falls, followed by Algeria and Germany. Overall, the retirement of copper is present across most of the countries we track.
Conclusion
In Q2 2026, growth in fixed broadband subscribers slowed down to 0.8%. Globally, the growth was concentrated in developing markets of South and East Asia (53.9% of net adds) and Latin America (17.4%). Middle East and Africa, though with significantly smaller adds, was the second fastest growing region.
FTTP added 15.2 million subscribers and was used by three out of four fixed broadband connections in our dataset, while copper, FTTx and cable lost 5.8 million in the quarter. Satellite and FWA continued to grow at the fastest pace, albeit from a relatively small bases. They are becoming legitimate alternatives to broadband provided using cables in the ground, rather than just niche technologies.
Taken together, the data suggests that global growth is easing outside China as well as within it, and that the move towards FTTP, FWA and satellite is continuing. We will see over the coming quarters whether the slower pace of Q2 2026 proves temporary.
Access the data
This report draws on six quarters of data (Q1 2025 – Q2 2026) covering 124 countries and territories across seven regions, split by technology in the underlying dataset. Explore the data in the free version of our interactive dashboard here. For full data access, subscribers can login or contact isabelle.anderson@point-topic.com .
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