Fiber to the Home News: Asian Economies Continue to Set Pace on Market Penetration

Released by FTTH Council on 27 February 2008

Fiber to the Home Deployment Spreads Globally As More Economies Show Market Growth with Asian Economies Continue to Set Pace on Market Penetration - U.S, China and Japan Drive Volume

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The number of countries where fiber to the home connections are showing significant gains in the broadband services market continues to expand, according to an updated global ranking issued today by the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Councils of Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.

The new ranking, released today at the FTTH Council Europe’s annual conference in Paris and based on statistics gathered at the end of 2007, lists 14 economies where more than one percent of households are connected directly into high speed fiber optic networks. On the three councils’ first-ever ranking, released last July, 11 economies exceeded the 1 percent threshold. Slovenia, Iceland and Singapore were the new entries on the list.

Globally, 2007 was the best year yet in terms of numbers of new subscribers to FTTH services, thanks primarily to strong growth in Japan, China and the United States, where a total of nearly 6 million new FTTH households were added for the three countries.

The updated ranking shows that Asian economies continue to outpace the rest of the world in terms of FTTH market penetration, with South Korea moving into the top slot with 31.4% of households connected, followed by Hong Kong at 23.4% and Japan at 21.3%.

The United States, by more than doubling its penetration rate to 2.3%, moved up three places to eighth position, followed by two of the three countries making their first appearance on the chart, Slovenia at 1.8% and Iceland at 1.5%. The People’s Republic of China moved from tenth to eleventh place as direct fiber connections in that country moved up slightly to 1.5%. Netherlands, Italy and Singapore rounded out the list with market penetration rates ranging from 1.1 to 1.4%.

"It is no accident that Asia-Pac continues to be the fastest growing region for FTTH in the world, with more subscribers connected on fiber than all other regions combined,” said Schoichi Hanatani, President of the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific. “The rollout of FTTH has been encouraged by forward-looking governments and regulators in the Asia-Pac region for several years now. They understand that FTTH is a key strategic national infrastructure."

The global ranking follows the unified definition of FTTH terms announced by the three regional councils last year, and which has formed the basis for recent market research by each council. For completeness and accuracy the ranking includes both FTTH and FTTB (fiber-to-the-building) figures, while copper-based broadband access technologies (DSL, FTT-Curb, FTT-Node) are not included.

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