According to a survey by the Fiber to the Home Council Americas, small and medium-sized telephone companies that have upgraded their networks to all-fiber are reporting operational cost savings averaging 20% annually, largely because of a decrease in ongoing repair and maintenance costs.The survey of more than 350 telecommunications providers across North America also indicated that the number of homes that can access FTTH networks increased by 17.6% over a year ago to 22.7 million. The number of households connected with FTTH now stands at 9.7 million, an increase of more than 20% over April 2012.