New figures from broadband analyst firm Point Topic show that fiber and cable networks are currently servicing 77% of fixed subscriptions, dominating the global broadband market, reports The Broadband Forum.
According to the Global Broadband Statistics, either full-fiber, fiber-fed copper, or cable connects over 50% of people in more than 40 countries. This includes 97% in Singapore, 89% in China, 87% in the U.S., and 55% in the UK. The statistics take into account subscriptions through the end of 2017.
With over 530 million connections, fiber to the home (FTTH), fiber to the building (FTTB), fiber to the cabinet (FTTC),VDSL, VDSL2, G.fast, and other fiber-fed subscriptions made up 57% of broadband subscriptions. Jolanta Stanke, Point Topic's research director, said that VDSL and G.fast combined were primarily responsible for fiber's visible growth, with over 30 operators throughout the world deploying or trialing G.fast.
"G.fast gives operators a more cost-effective variant of fiber that will be used by operators who want to upgrade their existing networks quicker and more easily," said Stanke via a Broadband Forum press release. "This could enable them to serve more customers in less densely populated areas, where direct fiber investment is less economically feasible."
Earlier this year, Point Topic stated that 33 telecom operators and ISPs have deployed G.fast or plan to roll out this technology in the near future (see "Nearly 3 million premises passed with Gfast networks as of early 2018: Point Topic").
Hybrid fiber-coaxial and other cable accounted for 20% of the total of all fixed broadband connections. Point Topic's report shows that the latest standard of this technology is now deployed throughout various markets and is capable of providing gigabit download speeds. The technology is notably popular in North America.
The new technologies enable operators to deploy fiber deep into the network, eliminating the need to enter buildings themselves. Robin Mersh, Broadband Forum's CEO, said the new figures from Point Topic indicate that these technologies are advancing from trials to mass deployment.
"We are finding that customers across most global regions increasingly prefer faster broadband services delivered over fiber and cable platforms, as opposed to ADSL," Stanke added. "This trend will continue as more bandwidth-hungry young consumers become paying decision makers, even though superfast 4G LTE and 5G mobile broadband services will compete for their wallets."
The Broadband Forum is a non-profit industry organization that creates multi-service broadband packet networking specifications to address architecture, device and service management, software data models interoperability, and certification in the broadband market.
The BBF.069 CPE Certification Program has been developed to verify that devices are TR-069 compliant. TR-069, also known as the CPE WAN Management Protocol, and has now exceeded 800 million global installations. The Forum introduced the first consumer home devices to be certified by its new BBF.069 CPE Certification Program in 2012 (see "Broadband Forum: Global broadband subscriptions exceed 624M").
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