The sale of DSL gear is breaking all records as more and more people hook up to high-speed Net access.

Overall, the total number of digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) port shipments topped 12.4 million units in Q3 - a 182 per cent increase from the same period a year ago. Worldwide customer premise equipment (CPE) shipments increased 135.5 per cent to 10.2 million compared to this time last year, said Gartner.

Asia-Pacific registered massive growth in DSLAM port shipments with at least three million DSLAM ports - a quarter of the total shipments - going to China alone.

North America also registered a slight increase in shipments, as services providers tried to compete with more established cable services.

A slight dip in DSLAM shipments to Europe and the Middle East was blamed on a seasonal blip.

According to Gartner, this strong demand for DSL kit is likely to continue for another couple of quarters as telcos ramp up for mass-market deployment of DSL.

This month broadband researchers Point Topic reported that the global take-up of DSL is continuing to grow. It predicted that the number of lines will exceed 60 million by the end of the year. The total number of DSL lines topped 53 million at the end of September, an increase of 73 per cent on the year before, according to experts. ®

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