BRUSSELS — The FTTH Council Europe revealed the 2020 Market Panorama and the latest figures outlining fiber deployment trends in Europe prepared by IDATE.

 

 

The total number of homes passed with Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and Fiber to the Building (FTTB) in the EU391 reached nearly 172 million homes compared to 160 million in 2018 with now 19 countries counting more than 2 million homes passed. The main movers in terms of homes passed in absolute numbers are France (+3,5 M), Italy (+1,9 M) and Spain (+1,5 M). The top five of the annual growth rates in terms of homes passed is headed by Belgium (+307%), Ireland (+70.4%), Switzerland (+69.1%), United Kingdom (+50.8%) and Germany (33.5%).

 

The coverage of both FTTH and FTTB networks in September 2019 was almost 50%. By September 2019, EU39 reached a 49.9% coverage of FTTH/B networks while EU283 39.4%, compared to respectively 46.4% and 36.4% in 2018. This shows a clear upward trend from the September 2015 figures when the coverage was at 39.8% in EU39 and 27.2% in EU28. The number of FTTH and FTTB subscribers in Europe increased by 15.0% in EU39 since September 2018 with 70.4 million FTTH/B subscribers in September 2019. Russia still plays a major role in this increase, however, it is interesting to note that the EU28 experienced a 20.9% increase on its own.

 

This year, the country adding the most subscribers is located in Western Europe. France added 1.923.000 new FTTH/B subscriptions and Spain came second adding 1.650.820 new FTTH/B subscribers. Other countries also experienced an outstanding increase in their number of subscribers such as Greece (+285%), Ireland (+185%), Switzerland (+176%), Belgium (+111%) and Italy (+45.3%).