Key Points:

• In terms of growth, India remained at the top of the largest 20 fixed broadband markets with a 6.7% quarterly growth rate.

• The share of FTTH/B in the total fixed broadband subscriptions increased further and stood at 72.68%. 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 7.2%. Satellite and FWA saw an even higher annual growth (41.6% and 31% respectively).

• Legacy copper subscriptions declined by 12.1% y-o-y, while FTTx lines (mainly VDSL) went down by 6%, with Spain becoming one of the first countries in the world and the first major European economy to shut down its copper network completely.

• 5G FWA take-up accelerated, especially in India and the US, as a result of aggressive investments by Reliance, Bharti Airtel, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T.

Other regions saw their net adds shares expand, with an exception of Latin America and Western Europe. In Western Europe, whose net adds share halved, most of the Scandinavian countries, the UK and some others saw a decline in fixed broadband subscribers, as the extent of migration to gigabit capable technologies was not sufficient to offset the decline in copper based subscriptions.

For the largest twenty broadband markets, once again all except the UK saw fixed broadband subscriber growth in Q2 2025 (Figure 5). The UK saw a -0.05% decline (compared to -0.3% in the previous quarter), as the FTTP growth was not sufficient to offset the decline in DSL, FTTx and cable broadband connections. For several quarters now India is at the top of this cohort, with a 6.7% growth, continuing to show huge growth potential due to the low fixed broadband penetration (16% of households) and the fast growing economy. Along with Canada, India also saw the largest increase in quarterly growth, compared to Q1 2025.

The decline in copper and FTTx (mainly VDSL) is not surprising. When it comes to cable/HFC, it is not immune to competition from other technologies either. The US is a good example, being the largest cable market globally. There the decline has continued as major players such as Comcast, Charter, Cox, Altice and others are losing customers. Competition from telcos who are rapidly expanding their fibre footprints (AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, Lumen, Consolidated Communications) and offering symmetric bandwidth, superior upload speeds and lower latency is partly to blame. At the same time, cable broadband prices have risen steadily due to promotional offer expirations, ‘network fees’, and equipment costs. Finally, 5G FWA home broadband from T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T has exploded, with their customer numbers jumping year-on-year by 31%, 34% and 194% respectively.

Globally, wireless broadband (FWA, 5G FWA and LTE fixed) connections also continued to grow – they went up by 31% year-on-year, largely impacted by an explosive growth of 5G FWA in India (332% year-on-year) as well as the US (39%). In India, Reliance and Bharti Airtel are marching ahead with 5G FWA rollouts, capitalising on the huge potential of the enormous broadband hungry market.

Point Topic expects this trend to continue due to the fact that FWA networks are easier to scale after the initial investment, FWA broadband services being generally cheaper for consumers than the alternatives, easy to self-install, and being ‘good enough’ for streaming, remote work, and average household use, as well as the demand for connectivity in remote and underserved areas. Having said that, this applies primarily to the more advanced FWA, especially 5G based. They are also seeing a decline in subscriptions based on older FWA variants in some markets.