The team at Pyramid Research , part of the Light Reading Communications Network, has looked ahead to 2012 to identify the key trends they expect to see in the coming year. Follow the "Trends for 2012" series of articles to build up a picture of what's coming down the pipe in the next 12 months.

Given economic uncertainties, we expect to see a slowdown in FTTH deployments worldwide in favor of continued VDSL buildout
Pyramid Research is seeing a slowdown in the deployment of some of the largest planned fiber rollouts (Verizon in the U.S. is an example) in response to the economic uncertainty in the global financial markets. Given the expense associated with rolling out FTTH and longer ROI periods, operators are looking to the much less expensive VDSL option as a way to extend higher capacities to customers. This is certainly the case in Western European markets, where operators are focused on VDSL expansion. The largest markets for fiber rollout will continue to be Russia and China, which are favoring a less expensive FTTB versus FTTH configuration. Middle Eastern operators will continue their push for last-mile fiber access, particularly in the UAE and Turkey.

For more

• Industry Insight Service on Mobile Broadband Devices: Global Landscape & Trends
• Industry Insight Service on Fiber in the Last Mile: Network Business Models, Adoption Trends and Best Practices
• Despite a Challenging Climate, Fixed Operators Can Profit from Business Broadband and FTTx
• Pyramid's Top 2012 Trends (free registration required)

— The Analysts, Pyramid Research