Worldwide broadband subscriber growth is slowing down, but North America is bucking the trend, new research reveals.

Analyst firm Point Topic reported today that there were 328.8 million broadband subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2007.

This equates to an increase of 4.72 per cent over the quarter, down from 5.16 per cent in the second quarter of 2007.

Figures for the US and Canada, however, suggest an increased growth rate of 0.15 per cent to 3.29 per cent for the quarter.

"Western Europe added the second highest number of new subscribers in the regional chart with 3.5 million, due mainly to strong numbers in Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain," Point Topic stated.

"The broadband market for the whole of western Europe experienced subscriber growth of 4.05 per cent."

Eastern Europe is still leader in percentage growth terms. The subscriber base grew by 11.54 per cent during the third quarter of 2007, although this is down slightly in comparison with the 11.92 per cent growth in the previous quarter.

Net additions in eastern Europe represent 10 per cent of the global total, mainly due to the contributions of Russia, Romania and Poland.

Broadband users in Latin America grew steadily over the third quarter. Growth was 8.86 per cent during the second quarter of 2007, while three months later it fell to 8.63 per cent or 1.3 million net additions.

This is approximately the same number of new subscribers added in the Asia Pacific region, but equates to the lowest regional growth rate in the third quarter of 2007 of 2.4 per cent due to the higher base.

Although the percentage increase in South and East Asia was down on the second quarter, the region reported the highest number of net additions with 3.9 million.

With 3.5 million new broadband users, China accounted for 90 per cent of them, Point Topic reported.