Growth in Europe’s FTTx (FTTH/B) market is mostly being seen in CEE countries, and in particular Russia.
According to the latest research conducted by Dataxis, the number of FTTx (FTTH/B) subscribers in the continent as a whole stood at 53 million as of last year, up from only 15 million in 2010. Moreover, it rose to 55 million in the first quarter of 2017.
In 2016, CEE accounted for 69%, or 37 million, FTTx (FTTH/B) susbcribers, and Russia accounted for almost 68%, or 24 million, of those in CEE.
Dataxis notes that incumbent Russian operators such as Rostelecom, Beeline and MTS started investing in FTTx (FTTH/B) in 2010 and consider it as the technology of future, with a strong competitive advantage in speed and traffic per household.
Indeed, at the end of the Q1 2017, 78% of broadband connections in Russia were FTTx (FTTB/H).