The group says there were 298 million subscribers in March.

"Given the prevailing growth rates it is safe to assume the number has now passed 300 million," says Katja Mueller, Research Director at Point Topic.

The regional data indicates that in the first quarter of this year France was the major mover in the top ten countries when expressed in terms of numbers of subscribers. France grew by 9.6 percent in the period, to 15.3 million subscribers, and leapfrogged South Korea to 5th place with its 14.1 million subscribers.

Based on broadband penetration, however, South Korea is by far the world's top broadband user with nearly 90 percent of households online.

The U.S. remains the largest broadband country in the world and passed its own milestone, exceeding 60 million subscribers (growing to 60.4 million) in the quarter with 2.9 million more broadband subscribers, according to Pont Topic.

However, China is continuing to push hard for the top spot, and has cut the gap with the U.S. from 5.8 million at the end of 2006 to 4.1 million at the end of March 2007. China now has 56.3 million subscribers connected broadband.

The data shows that usage in Eastern Europe is continuing to grow strongly, and was the only region to record more than 10 percent growth in the quarter.

Romania passed the one million subscriber mark helping Eastern European countries to post 3 of the 10 fastest growing countries worldwide, a Point Topic statistic that excludes countries with less than 100,000 subscribers in December 2006. Greece was the top grower in percentage terms expanding by 26.8 percent during the quarter.

Other counties in the top ten include Japan in third place (26.5 million subscribers; Germany fourth (16.1 million); the U.K. seventh with 14 million, followed by Italy (9.4 million); Canada (8 million) and Spain (7.2 million).

The statistics, however, paint a picture of a divided digital world. As noted, there are high levels of broadband penetration in Western Europe, North America and advanced economies like South Korea, but usage in developing countries and especially in Africa is struggling to take off.

In terms of broadband penetration, as noted, South Korea leads the field, with several small, economically vibrant and densely populated states also showing up high on the list, such as Hong Kong, Monaco and Macau.

The U.S. comes in at 24th place, with 53 percent, while for China, the figure drops to 14.35%. India, through often seen as a fast growing high technology country, only has penetration rate of 1.15 percent of an estimated 200 million households, according to Point Topic. The U.K. ranks 17th with 55.5 percent of households having high speed data connection.

However, many Sub-Saharan African states do not register in the figures at all: only South Africa (1.8 percent penetration and 215,000 users as at the end of March), Sudan, Senegal and Gabon make it on to Point Topic's the list, with broadband penetration in the last three less than 1 percent.

North African states fare slightly better with Morocco scoring 6.8 percent penetration with 418,000 users and Egypt at 1.55 percent, representing 240,000 households linked to broadband.