Q3 2025 Broadband Subscriber Trends: Fibre Dominates as 5G FWA and Satellite Gain Momentum

Summary

This report provides analysis of trends in global and regional broadband subscriptions, technology adoption, and growth rates in various markets in Q3 2025.

Global broadband subscribers surpassed 1.56 billion in Q3 2025, marking a 1.46% growth, only slightly lower than in Q3 2024. Broadband subscriptions[1] declined in 13 countries[2], compared to 24 in Q2 2025. In some of these markets consumers are migrating to mobile broadband, others are experiencing economic and geopolitical headwinds or already have very high broadband penetration.

Other key points:

• India remained at the top of the largest 20 fixed broadband markets with a 7.2% quarterly growth.

• The share of FTTH/B in the total fixed broadband subscriptions increased further and stood at 73.1%. Broadband connections based on other technologies saw their market shares shrink again, with an exception of satellite and fixed wireless access (FWA).

• Year-on-year, FTTH/B connections grew by 7.1%. Satellite and FWA saw an even higher annual growth (38.2% and 38.3% respectively).

• Legacy copper subscriptions declined by 14.2% y-o-y, while FTTx lines (mainly VDSL) went down by 4.6%. Cable/HFC connections also fell by 2.9%.

• 5G FWA take-up accelerated further, especially in India and the US, with each country adding 1.2m subscribers in Q3 2025.

Global and regional trends in broadband subscriber growth

Figure 1. Trends in world broadband subscriber growth. Source – Point Topic.

In Q3 2025, the global fixed broadband subscriber figure grew by 1.46%, exceeding 1.56 billion. In line with seasonal trends, the growth rate was higher than in the previous three quarters but slightly lower than in the respective quarter of 2024 (Figure 1 and Table 1).

Table 1. Global broadband subscribers and quarterly growth rates. Source – Point Topic.

South and East Asia continues to claim the lion’s share of net adds in global fixed broadband subscribers, and it increased further from 59.1% to 67.9% quarter-on-quarter (Table 2 and Figure 2). This was largely due to the growth recovery in China, the largest broadband market of the region. The country recorded a 1.6% quarterly growth, nearly double the 0.9% recorded in the previous quarter.

Table 2. Share of fixed broadband subscribers and trends in net adds by region. Source – Point Topic.

Figure 2. Share of net adds of fixed broadband subscribers by region. Source – Point Topic.

Other regions saw their net adds shares drop, with an exception of Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America, all of which experienced a better quarter. In Eastern Europe, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Moldova saw quarterly growth above 2%. In Western Europe, only three saturated markets recorded a decline in fixed broadband subscribers, where the number of new subscribers to gigabit broadband was not sufficient to offset the decline in copper based subscriptions. Elsewhere, the likes of Spain, France, UK and Germany saw slightly higher growth compared to Q2 2025.

North America also saw a healthy increase in the net adds share (6.1% this quarter compared to 5.96% in Q2 2025), as the quarterly growth in the US recovered, driven especially by 5G FWA and FTTP.

Broadband penetration among population is one of the factors affecting growth rates, as illustrated by the Middle East and Africa (MEA), which remains at the bottom right corner of the penetration – growth chart (Figure 3), signifying the lowest penetration (9.1%) and the highest quarterly growth rate (1.9%). MEA retains a good growth potential, especially for FWA and satellite broadband connections. Some countries in the region are also heavily investing in FTTP.

Figure 3. Penetration and quarterly growth by region (Bubble size represents the size of the market). Source – Point Topic.

This quarter, South and East Asia shared the highest quarterly growth with MEA (1.9%), driven by healthy growth in both India and China, the largest regional and markets, and plenty of headroom for growth (India has one of the lowest broadband penetration rates in the world, for example).

Latin America and Asia-Pacific occupy the middle ground in terms of broadband penetration (20.2% and 18.2%) and quarterly growth (1.2% and 1.0% respectively). Along with its higher broadband penetration (27.9%), Eastern Europe also recorded a modest 1% quarterly increase in broadband connections, contrasting North America which saw very similar 0.9% growth, but whose broadband market is approaching saturation (40.9% penetration).

Western Europe is in the top left corner of the chart, with high penetration (42.2%) accompanied by modest growth (0.3%) and a decline in some markets (Switzerland, Denmark, Austria).

Diminishing growth potential in some countries and the shift to new technologies continues to lead to mergers and acquisitions. For example, in the US, where fibre is gradually replacing cable/HFC and VDSL, formerly 5G focused T-Mobile went on a shopping spree to expand its fibre footprint. In 2024-25 it made two joint venture-based investments to acquire Lumos and Metronet. As a result of the Lumos deal, T-Mobile acquired 500,000 homes passed with plans to expand the footprint to 3.5 million by 2028. Through the Metronet acquisition, T-Mobile gained two million premises passed in 17 states. In the most recent move, T-Mobile acquired Minnesota-based fibre operator US Internet, aiming to become a serious challenger to larger competitors AT&T and Verizon. It targets up to 15 million homes passed with FTTP by 2030.

All the largest twenty broadband markets saw fixed broadband subscriber growth in Q3 2025 (Figure 4). For several quarters now India is at the top of this cohort, with a 7.2% growth, continuing to show huge growth potential due to the low fixed broadband penetration (17% of households) and the fast growing economy. In Q3 2025, India recorded a further dramatic increase in 5G FWA connections (+14.5% quarter-on-quarter).

Figure 4. Changes in quarterly growth in fixed broadband subscribers in the largest 20 markets. Source: Point Topic.

The large developing economies of Argentina, Indonesia, and Vietnam saw 2%+ quarterly growth in fixed broadband subscribers. At the other end of the spectrum, the more saturated markets of Germany, Italy, UK and France grew much more modestly (0.1-0.2%).

Technology trends in broadband subscriber growth

The market share of fibre based broadband subscriptions (FTTH/B) has expanded further – quarter-on-quarter it went up by 0.48% and stood at 73.09%. Broadband connections based on cable, copper and FTTx technologies saw their market shares shrink further. Satellite and wireless (FWA) broadband connections expanded their market shares to 0.52% and 3.15% respectively.

Table 3. Changes in broadband technology market shares. Source – Point Topic.

Among the markets with at least 0.5 million fibre broadband connections, we recorded the highest FTTH/B growth rates in Egypt (23.8%), Algeria (15.4%), Belgium (10.9%), South Africa (10.8%), and Greece (10.7%) (Figure 5). Along with young / low broadband penetration markets, this ranking once again contains more mature broadband markets of Belgium, Greece, and the UK. These countries were relatively late in focusing on fibre as the main broadband technology, with the incumbents initially betting on VDSL. Partly because fibre networks there are relatively new, these markets are in the bottom ten by FTTH/B take-up rates among the European countries. (See our piece on FTTP take-up in Europe).

Figure 5. Top 10 markets by FTTH/B growth rates (countries with at least 0.5m fibre broadband subscribers). Source: Point Topic.

Globally, healthy quarterly FTTH/B growth rates were spread around the world, with the less advanced economies and more youthful fibre markets generally exhibiting higher growth (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Quarterly growth in fibre broadband subscribers around the world. Source: Point Topic.

While FTTH/B had another good year, the more dramatic growth came from wireless technologies – satellite and FWA (admittedly, from a lower base). In 12 months to the end of Q3 2025, FTTH/B lines grew by 7.1%, while satellite and wireless (mainly 5G FWA) connections increased by 38% each. The number of copper (DSL) lines saw another decline (-14.2%), while FTTx lines dropped by 4.6% and cable (HFC) broadband subscriber number fell by 2.9% (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Annual growth in subscriber numbers by technology, Q3 2024 to Q3 2025. Source – Point Topic.

While the decline in legacy copper and part copper is not surprising, cable/HFC also appears to be on the way out in some markets. The US, the world’s largest cable market, saw a further drop in cable broadband subscribers with both giants Comcast and Charter losing more than 100K each. Competition from telcos who are rapidly expanding their fibre footprints is hard to beat, and 5G FWA home broadband offerings from Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T have exploded, with their customer numbers jumping year-on-year by 28%, 33% and 168% respectively.

In India, 5G FWA connections shot up by 236% year-on-year, with both Reliance and Bharti Airtel continuing to invest aggressively in their 5G FWA rollouts.

We expect this trend to continue due to the fact that 5G FWA networks are easier to scale after the initial investment, these services being generally cheaper than the alternatives, and being ‘good enough’ for streaming, remote work, and average household use, as well as the demand for connectivity in remote and underserved areas.

Satellite broadband subscribers saw a boost of 38.2% year-on-year, mainly due to the growing Starlink customer base that reached 6.2 million (in the markets we track). The largest markets remain the US (2.4m), Canada (0.6m), Brazil (0.4m) and Argentina (0.4m) (our estimates).

Our customers subscribing to the Global Broadband Statistics product can access the complete dataset containing the data at the country, operator and technology level.

[1] Whenever we refer to ‘broadband’ in this report, we mean fixed broadband. Also, ‘subscriptions’ and ‘connections’ are used interchangeably.

[2] It is possible there will be restatements in the coming quarter/s and single period data should be viewed in that light. Decline in some markets can be due to changes in methodology used by national regulatory authorities.