The number of fibre to the home (FTTH) and fibre to the building (FTTB) subscribers in Europe increased by 19% over the first nine months of 2015, reaching more than 35.9 million FTTH/B subscribers.
Homes passed increased by 17%, with nearly 127 million FTTH/B homes passed in EU39 at end-September 2015, according to the latest update to the FTTH panorama announced at a press conference held at the FTTH Conference 2016 in Luxembourg.
At end-September 2015, there were more than 17.9 million FTTH/B subscribers on the European continent, excluding CIS countries (namely Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine), according to the latest update of the FTTH market panorama prepared by IDATE for the FTTH Council Europe. After Russia, which counts more than 15 million subscribers, the other largest markets in absolute figures are Spain (reaching 2.6 million subscribers with 65% growth rate over nine months), France (2.4 million subscribers with 31% growth) and Romania (2.3 million subscribers).
The deployment of FTTH in these countries was led by initiatives by both private operators and policy makers. For example, in Germany fibre projects led by municipalities coupled with the dynamism of private players had a great impact on fibre rollout in the country. The rollout and adoption of FTTH/B in those countries is expected to continue to grow at a steady pace in the coming years.
In terms of penetration, while Lithuania is still number one in the ranking with a penetration rate of 36.8%, Latvia (36.2%) and Sweden (35.2%) have made impressive progress. Both countries are now nearing lead position after greatly increasing their penetration rate since end-December 2014. They are not the only countries racing forward. Luxembourg’s penetration rate gained almost three points from 11.2% at end-December 2014 to 14.1% at end-September 2015. The high-level engagement and support of politicians, along with the involvement of incumbent operator POST and other stakeholders, explain the significant penetration of fibre in the country.
“The year 2015 has seen continued structural growth in fibre rollout throughout Europe, confirming the trend already observed in 2014.” said Edgar Aker, president of the FTTH Council Europe. “We are glad to witness such progress, including three new countries entering our FTTH ranking. We feel that the European Commission now tends to favour the development of a more “fibre friendly” environment. It is also important to stress the endorsement of fibre broadband by local policy makers, as well as the increase in public-private partnerships. Europe is now well positioned to stimulate FTTH rollout, the only future-proof broadband solution.”
There are however a number of European countries that are still holding back on their fibre deployments. Countries such as Austria, Ireland and Belgium connected less than 4,000 new FTTH/B customers during the first nine months of 2015. Even though the United Kingdom connected 26,000 more FTTH/B subscribers, the country is still lagging behind and has yet to reach the qualifying 1% threshold for the FTTH ranking.
