According to Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in the first three months of 2005 optical fiber-based high-speed Internet access service subscriptions grew by 420,112, marking the first quarter ever that optical fiber subscriptions grew more than ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) subscriptions, which only increased by 350,432. Reasons for the growing popularity of optical fiber subscriptions are a decrease in subscription fees, enhanced content lineups and higher Internet access speeds. There were 19.51 million subscribers to broadband Internet access services in Japan at the end of March 2005, meaning that 39.15% of households in Japan had a subscription.