FTTH Council Unveils Ranking

WASHINGTON -- With continued regional growth in fiber to the home (FTTH) market penetration, Asia consolidated its position as the global leader in the march toward next-generation broadband while the United States and Europe also continued to experience robust growth in FTTH, according to an updated global ranking issued today by the FTTH Councils of Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.

The ranking, updated twice a year and released today at the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific’s 3rd Annual Conference and Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, tracks the level of FTTH market penetration in economies where more than one percent of households are connected directly into high speed fiber networks. In all, 14 economies met this threshold.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan now occupy the top four positions in the ranking, and the Asian region now accounts for more than 27 million of the world’s estimated 32 million fiber to the home connections. South Korea now has nearly 37 percent of its households connected to fiber, with Hong Kong at 27 percent, Japan at 24 percent and Taiwan at 7.7 percent. And while the People’s Republic of China ranked 11th in terms of market penetration, growth in the number of connections to 7.5 million means that China is now second only to Japan in the number of households with FTTH.

“This is an exciting time for FTTH broadband in Asia. FTTH has overtaken DSL in South Korea and will soon do the same in Japan,” said Shoichi Hanatani, President of the FTTH Council Asia Pacific. “Here in the Asia-Pac region, we are witnessing the end of a hundred years of telecom history as copper loops are quickly being replaced by optical fiber access networks.”

Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council