Countries in Central and Eastern Europe are at the forefront of FTTH adoption, with three of the five top countries in Europe having recently joined the EU.
Data produced by the FTTH Council Europe and announced at the Broadband World Forum in Paris shows that the number of FTTH subscribers in Europe as a whole, including Russia, has increased by 22% in the past six months thanks largely to a booming broadband market in the CEE region.
Europe currently has 3.2 million FTTH/B subscribers, or nearly 4.5 million including Russia, with the total number of homes passed being 18 million (over 26 million including Russia). The latter represents a growth of over 6% in the first half of 2010.
Lithuania leads the rankings in terms of percentage of households subscribing to broadband over a direct fibre connection, ahead of such mature FTTH markets as Sweden and Norway, while Romania has entered the rankings in 13th place with over 120,000 FTTH/B subscribers and Bulgaria showing the fastest growth.
The majority of FTTH subscribers (74%) are concentrated in eight countries in the following order – Sweden, France, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark and Slovakia.
