DBS/DTH, WiMax, FSO, VF Mobile UMTS HSDPA, CDMA EV-DO Emerging Broadband PLT Drivers of Broadband Access Broadband Statistics: Q1 2006," www.point-topic.com), the United States remains the largest broadband market, with more than 48.3 million lines. China comes in second place, with 41.2 million lines; Japan is third, with 23.4 million lines; and South Korea is fourth, with more than 12.4 million lines. Of the Western European countries, Germany ranks highest, with 11.5 million lines, followed by the United Kingdom and France, with 10.8 million lines each. Just as we expect the econo- mies of China, India, and Russia to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years, theirs are also the markets where broadband is anticipated to see the largest growth in the near term. China is expected to surpass the United States in the number of broadband subscribers by the year 2007. The big and established broadband countries have achieved high penetration and are now growing less rapidly than in the past. The slowest-growing region in 2005 was Asia-Pacific, where countries known for their love of technology, such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, are exhibiting saturation (although Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand are now showing rapid growth). Africa and the Middle East, while having the smallest share of broadband lines, is now the fastest-growing region of the world, percentage-wise. The next-fastest-growing regions are Latin America and eastern Europe, both of which still have a small share of the world's broadband access. Southeast Asia shows the greatest increases in terms of absolute numbers (i.e., number of new subscriber lines), with India and China responsible for the majority of the growth. As of early 2006, DSL had 66.72% of world broadband market share, with cable operators accounting for 23.64% and fiber-to-the-x (FTTx, where X means premises, curb, building, or home) operators coming in with 8.84% of the broad- band lines. Other technologies, including broadband wireless and powerline com- munica