China Tops Yearly Broadband Provider Rankings

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2010 – According to yearly provider rankings released by TeleGeography, the research arm of Primetrica, Inc, China’s two broadband service providers China Telecom and China Unicom lead the world in terms of millions of subscribers. China Telecom currently enjoys 50 million subscribers, with China Unicom close behind at just over 40 million. Both companies count more than twice as many subscribers as American telecom giants AT&T and Comcast, and between four and five times as many as Verizon.

Taken together, China Unicom and China Telecom account for 20% of worldwide broadband market share, a statistic which TeleGeography researchers predicted would only increase. “The gap between the top two operators and the world’s remaining broadband service providers will continue to grow rapidly,” commented TeleGeography Research Director Tania Harvey. “Aside from the two Chinese companies, all of the top ten broadband ISPs operate in mature markets, with high levels of broadband penetration and rapidly slowing subscriber growth.”