67M FTTH/FTTB Subscribers, Going to 198M by 2015

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE - As of mid-2011, there were nearly 67 million subscribers to fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to-the-building services worldwide, according to a new report from the DigiWorld Institute by IDATE. This represented a growth of 54 percent from a year earlier. By year-end 2015, the number is expected to triple, reaching 198 million.

The number of homes and buildings passed by fiber also accelerated over the same time mid-2010 to mid-2011 period, increasing by 47 percent to nearly 179 million.



China has consolidated its number two spot behind Japan, but there is a gap in the two countries’ growth rates between December 2010 and June 2011 - 14 percent for China and 5 percent for Japan. If this trend continues, IDATE says, China will overtake Japan for the top spot in the not-too-distant future.

Russia continues to be the biggest FTTH/B market in Europe with close to 5.2 million
subscribers. Sweden is still in the top 10, but subscriber counts there progressed very little from
six months earlier. France has been making real strides, but ISPs there are still having trouble
persuading broadband customers to switch to FTTH/B, and penetration rates (percentage of
homes passed that actually subscribe) are still low.

Meanwhile, European countries will soon fall behind developing nations, which have much greater growth potential.