Fibre to Lead APAC Fixed Communications Growth Through 2031, Says GlobalData
Fixed communications service revenue in Asia-Pacific is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.2% between 2026 and 2031, supported by expanding broadband adoption and continued investment in fibre networks.
According to GlobalData’s APAC Fixed Communications Forecast Pack (Q2 2026), emerging markets including the Philippines, Malaysia and India will help drive growth as network expansion makes fixed broadband available to more users.
The research forecasts fixed broadband account penetration, measured against the population, will increase from 23.6% at the end of 2026 to 26.6% by 2031.
More developed markets, including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, already have relatively high broadband penetration following national broadband network programmes.
Kantipudi Pradeepthi, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Rising demand for high-speed internet services and competitively priced fiber broadband plans from operators with benefits like unlimited internet and access to major subscription video on demand (SVoD) platforms will drive the fiber broadband service adoption in the region. By 2031, fiber-optic access lines will account for a share of about 86% of the total fixed access lines in the developed APAC region, while their share in the total fixed lines in the emerging APAC markets will be slightly higher at 88%.”
Government-backed deployment and upgrade programmes are expected to support fibre growth across emerging APAC markets.
In Malaysia, GlobalData highlights progress under the Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) programme, which aims to extend broadband coverage and improve connectivity nationwide. Fibre coverage reached 9.94 million premises by May 2026, exceeding the nine million premises target cited for its second phase.
India is also expanding its infrastructure. According to figures cited in the analysis, Bharti Airtel deployed more than 43,000 kilometres of fibre during the 2025–26 financial year and extended its fibre network coverage to more than 45 million homes.
China remains one of the region’s largest fibre broadband markets, with GlobalData estimating that approximately 99% of its broadband subscriptions use fibre-optic lines in 2026. The research identifies gigabit upgrades and 10G optical network deployments as drivers of further premium broadband adoption among households and businesses.
Alongside infrastructure investment, operators are using entertainment bundles to make broadband packages more attractive.
Pradeepthi added: “Operators such as Reliance Jio in India, Spark in New Zealand, and Telstra in Australia have increased the attractiveness of fiber plans by bundling them with value-added services such as SVoD and pay-TV. In India, for instance, Reliance Jio’s basic broadband plan starts at INR399($4.60)/month with unlimited data at 30 mbps speed, while its popular INR999 ($11.51)/month plan offers unlimited data at 150 mbps with access to 12 OTT platforms, including Amazon Prime Lite, JioHotStar, Zee5, and SonyLIV.”
The outlook for fixed voice services is weaker. Voice telephony penetration is forecast to remain at around 10% throughout the period, with circuit-switched lines declining at a compound annual rate of 0.6%. Packet-switched telephony lines are expected to grow by 3.1% annually.
However, an increase in overall voice access lines is not expected to translate into higher fixed voice revenue.
Pradeepthi concluded: “Despite an increase in the overall voice telephony access lines in the region, fixed voice revenue will continue to decline over the forecast period, as users increasingly shift toward mobile voice and OTT-based calling services.”
Source: GlobalData – APAC Fixed Communications Forecast Pack (Q2 2026)
