Europe passes 10m FTTH subs milestone

Europe had 10 million fibre-to-the-home and building (FTTH/B) subscribers as of the end of June, with Russia accounting for more than half of the total, according to the latest figures published by the FTHH Council Europe.

“We have overtaken the U.S.,” said Nadia Babaali, presenting the numbers at Broadband World Forum in Paris on Tuesday. North America had 9.5 million connections at the same date, she said; Europe had 4.5 million subscribers a year earlier, compared with 8.6 million in North America.

“Asia is clearly leading [with 46 million connections as of mid-2011],” she added. The Middle East has just 0.3 million subscribers. The EU35 markets, excluding the CIS, had 4.6 million connections out of 25.1 million homes passed.

That take-up rate of 18.3% of homes passed is down on the 19.4% the region recorded in mid-2010, which, according to Babaali, is a sign that “expanding the network has been a priority for operators in Europe.”

The CIS countries – Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan – count 5.6 million subscribers between them. And for the most part it is Eastern European countries that are showing the way to their Western counterparts.

Lithuania leads Europe in terms of penetration measured as a percentage of population, having “just reached over 25% during the last six months,” Babaali said. The Nordic markets of Norway and Sweden also rank highly, but penetration stands at under 15%.

France and Italy come in at 17th and 18th respectively in the European table, which ranks countries with 200,000-plus households and fibre penetration of more than 1%. Germany, Spain and the U.K.

Fall below this 1% benchmark and for that reason do not feature. “We have two new entrants in the FTTH ranking,” Babaali noted: Hungary and the Ukraine.

Of the top 20, 11 are Eastern European markets, she added. “Eastern European countries are driving the growth for FTTH in Europe.” The data for the FTTH Council's European ranking is provided by iDate.

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