OCTOBER 9, 2006 -- The Fiber- to-the-Home (FTTH) Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) have announced results of a new study confirming that FTTH deployments pass over six million North American homes, an increase of more than two million homes since last March.
The number of North American homes and businesses directly connected via end-to-end fiber now exceeds one million and the growth rate in new subscribers is accelerating at an increase of 50% in the last six months.
The new figures, released during the FTTH Council's annual FTTH Conference & Expo, show the most rapid growth of FTTH deployment to date; well over 300,000 additional homes are passed every month. Major FTTH providers, which include municipalities and utilities, real estate developers, and operators, as well as traditional and non-traditional service providers, now are deploying at full speed--with more FTTH providers coming on line.
"The growth of fiber to the home continues to be dramatic," reports Michael Render of RVA Market Research. "Surveys of early fiber-to-the-home users show that they are highly satisfied with FTTH service attributes such as increased Internet speed, on- demand video, and HDTV, as well as online gaming," he says. "However, there is also increased interest in applications that affect health and education as information becomes available about services and distance learning available through the Internet."
"In 2006, FTTH providers in the United States have moved from pioneer efforts in the United States into the mainstream and are confirming that it is a question of when, not if, to deploy FTTH," adds FTTH Council president Joe Savage,
TIA president Matthew J. Flanigan notes that next-generation broadband is a matter of international competitiveness for the United States. "America has fallen behind in broadband penetration, reducing our relative efficiency in a number of ways," he explains. "Now a number of network operators are starting to deploy robust technologies like fiber-to- the-home. That is a very positive development because it will allow us to better compete in the international market for converged services."
Both organizations have urged policymakers to reduce barriers to next-generation broadband deployment, such as streamlining video franchise processes and allowing municipalities to build broadband networks.
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