Over 451 million people are now signed up to some form of broadband services, new global research from Point Topic has revealed.

The figures from the market intelligence body found that the number of subscribers rose by 3.18 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 from the previous three months, which means there are 451.94 million people in total using such services.

It was also revealed that DSL remains the dominant form of broadband services, accounting for 65.18 per cent of the market share.

In comparison, fibre optic broadband services account for just a 12.10 per cent share.

Oliver Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Point Topic, said: "DSL is the cheapest broadband option in every market around the world in monthly subscription and usually deployment terms. That's significant for growth in countries where average incomes won't stretch to super-fast access."

Previous research by Point Topic revealed that there were over 26.3 million subscribers to IPTV services by the end of the second quarter of 2009.