There are now over one million ultra-fast
fibre-to-the-home subscriptions in western Europe, although much
wider adoption in the short to medium term is remote, said research
group Informa.
Fibre-to-the-home, or FTTH, is a type of
next-generation access network technology that uses optical fibre
in the last-mile connection to provide broadband services with
speeds tens, even hundreds of times faster than conventional
alternatives.
Although FTTH represents only 1.4% of western Europe's 79
million-plus broadband subscriptions, the nascent business models
behind the networks are already having a significant impact on
competition in Scandinavia, said Informa.
FTTH is most-advanced in Sweden, where the technology is used
for 650,000, or over 27% of the country's 2,340,000 broadband
subscriptions. Significantly, the 150 municipal networks serving
these customers tend not to be owned by conventional telecoms
operators, but by utilities or local authorities, Informa said.
These new-entrants tend to offer an "open access" model, whereby
any third-party can provide their own-brand services over the
networks.
The success of the model is likely to be further bolstered by
the launch in Sweden of Europe's first scheme to co-ordinate
activities around municipal networks on a national level.
To date, companies that wanted to get involved would have to
negotiate deals with each project separately or on a regional
basis, which has discouraged large, national operators from
providing services or submitting tenders to operate the
networks.
Informa said that national telecoms operators have generally
committed themselves to fibre-to-the node delivery platforms. These
networks use fibre for part of the last-mile connection and the
traditional copper network for the final leg to the home, which
generally limits commercial speeds to around up to 50mbps.
France Telecom and its domestic competitors, Iliad and Neuf
Cegetel, are notable exceptions, having each begun to roll-out out
FTTH in cities and suburbs across France.
Apart from France, Scandinavia and the Netherlands though, there
is no immediate prospect in western Europe that FTTH services will
enjoy widespread availability, said Informa.
The researcher said this is not only due to a lack of initiative
from utilities and local authorities, but also because markets are
dominated by incumbents and cable operators, who have no incentive
to make hefty investments in brand new infrastructure.
At the recent Communications Management Association conference,
UK comms regulator Ofcom said it was not convinced about FTTH as a
viable widespread access system.
Ofcom is relying on BT and other providers to increase the
speeds of their DSL copper-based services instead.
Ofcom cautious over fibre connections
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