Fixed communications service revenue in Asia-Pacific (APAC) is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2% from 2026 to 2031, driven by rising fixed broadband adoption, particularly in emerging markets across the region. According to GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, fiber broadband is expected to be the primary driver of this growth.
An analysis of GlobalData’s APAC Fixed Communications Forecast Pack (Q2 2026) shows that APAC is moderately developed in terms of fixed broadband adoption. Fixed broadband account penetration is projected to reach 23.6% of the population by the end of 2026 and rise to 26.6% by 2031. This growth will be fueled by continued broadband network expansion and increasing adoption in emerging markets such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and India, where governments are investing heavily in fixed broadband infrastructure.
Developed APAC markets, meanwhile, already have relatively high broadband penetration, supported by national broadband network (NBN) initiatives in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
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%.”
Fiber-optic access line growth in emerging APAC markets will be driven largely by government-led fiber deployment and network upgrade initiatives.
In Malaysia, for example, the government’s Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) plan, which aims to expand broadband coverage and improve nationwide connectivity, has surpassed its deployment targets. Under the program’s phased implementation, fiber-optic coverage reached 9.94 million premises as of May 2026, exceeding the nine-million-premise target set for Phase 2 by 2025 and demonstrating continued progress in expanding the country’s fixed broadband infrastructure.
India is also expanding its fiber network to meet rising demand for fixed broadband. Bharti Airtel reported deploying more than 43,000 kilometers of fiber during FY2025–26, while extending its fiber network to cover over 45 million homes. These developments are helping support the expansion of high-speed broadband services nationwide.
According to GlobalData, approximately 99% of China’s broadband subscriptions were delivered over fiber-optic lines as of 2026, making the country one of the region’s leading fiber broadband markets. Ongoing efforts to advance next-generation broadband infrastructure—including gigabit broadband upgrades and 10G optical network deployments—are expected to further drive premium fiber broadband adoption among residential and enterprise customers. In May 2026, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reported that the country already had more than 32 million 10G PON ports capable of delivering 10-gigabit broadband services to homes.
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.”
Voice telephony penetration across APAC is expected to remain broadly unchanged at around 10% throughout the forecast period. While circuit-switched telephony lines are projected to decline at a CAGR of 0.6%, packet-switched telephony lines are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 3.1%.
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.”
