Consumer enthusiasm for broadband service continues unabated, reports In-Stat. During calendar year 2009, an average of 8.8 million new broadband subscribers worldwide signed up for service each month. By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the number of global broadband subscribers will surpass 1 billion.

“The growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as watching online video, using IP-based telephony services, and downloading music files, is spurring global demand for broadband Internet connections,” says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst.