The number of broadband Internet users in Brazil hit 55.4 million in November, up 68 percent from the same period last year, said the Brazilian Telecommunications Association (Telebrasil) on Monday. A total of 22.4 million new users were registered in the past 12 months. Among the broadband internet users, 38.9 million access the service through mobile equipment as the number of increasingly popular smartphones and laptops doubled over the past year. The rest 16.5 million are conventional cable users. The smartphone users in Brazil have surged 130 percent in the past 12 months since the country launched a National Broadband Internet Plan in 2011 to provide affordable broadband service to all Brazilians by 2014.