Further research has recently indicated how demand for cable solutions is likely to grow in the months and years to come, thanks to the global broadband market. Last week we reported a presentation from Integer Research that predicted “sustained growth” in several different types of cable solutions, from Fibre to the Home to coaxial cables. Now ABI Research has echoed that forecast, putting figures in place for the future growth of cable broadband for fixed-line subscribers. This is in part due to the need for higher bandwidth, capable of supporting formats such as 4K video and 3DTV, and emerging faster protocols like DOCSIS 3.0. But it’s also partly down to growth in developing areas of the world – such as in the Asia-Pacific region, where 57% of all fixed-line broadband subscribers can currently be found in China. “Chinese government investment and cable digitisation initiatives, in an effort to promote interplay between TV broadcasters, telecom carriers and internet operators, have been instrumental in this development,” ABI Research reports. With this in mind, the analyst expects that one in four fixed-line broadband subscribers will be using cable broadband connections by 2017. In the UK, where triple play TV, broadband and telephony services are already a feature of the market, it seems sensible to expect similar growth in cable broadband as connection speeds continue to grow, in order to carry all of the necessary information to subscribers’ homes.