Domestic subscribers of broadband Internet services will continue to rapidly grow at a compound annual growth rate of 81 percent from 635,000 in 2000 to 12.42 million in 2005, a high-tech research company predicted Wednesday.

According to International Data Corp. Japan, a Japanese unit of the IDC group of the United States, the number of people who use Digital Subscriber Line, a service based on metal phone cables, will surge from 10,000 in 2000 to 5.02 million in 2005.

The second-largest category will be cable modem subscribers, which the IDC expects to jump from 625,000 to 3.62 million during the same period. IDC Japan pointed out that Cable TV services are not as popular in Japan as in the United States, predicting DSL services will become the largest broadband category by exceeding cable modem service in 2002.

Users of fiber-optic lines will meanwhile rise from less than 1,000 to 3.5 million.

The Fixed Wireless Access service will remain a niche market, with the number of users projected to rise from less than 1,000 in 2000 to just 280,000 in 2005, the company predicted.

Analysts at IDC Japan pointed out that price competition among broadband service providers has intensified greatly following the entry of Yahoo Japan Corp., which will soon offer an Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line service for a flat monthly rate of 2,830 yen.

Yahoo Japan's announcement forced other competitors to slash their own rates, sending prices at most DSL services below those of conventional dial-up services.