The number of subscribers worldwide who get their broadband Internet connections from telecommunications companies will reach 413 million in 2010, outnumbering cable subscribers. That’s according to iSuppli’s Broadband Paradigm Shift or Just an Interim Step to Fiber? report. More than 70 million of these telco broadband subscribers will have fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections by 2009, posing a competitive threat to cable companies because fibre connections can carry television signals, not just Internet and phone. iSuppli analyst Steve Rago said, “FTTH poses a real threat to the MSOs, potentially rendering today’s cable television infrastructure obsolete. This is the same infrastructure that cable operators in the United States just finished upgrading at a cost that iSuppli estimates at $60 billion.” Verizon in the US, NTT in Japan and France Telecom are among the telcos deploying or planning to deploy fibre to the home, providing almost infinite bandwidth with which subscribers can receive thousands of High-Definition Television programs.