Study: Fiber to the Premises Displacing DSL

MELBOURNE – In countries such as Korea and Japan, the rapid displacement of ADSL by fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to-the-building technologies is nothing new. According to research firm Ovum, this network evolution is now spreading beyond Asia, and in the next few years western countries - notably the US and several northern European countries - will start to see rapid increases in FTTH/B and declines in ADSL.

Fiber deployment is not just confined to ‘developed countries,’ Ovum says. A number of emerging markets such as China and Malaysia also have very ambitious FTTH/B projects. “Even if we take into account an element of government and vendor hype for these markets, Ovum still forecasts a rapid take-up of advanced broadband services in those countries,” says  Michael Philpott, practice leader of Ovum’s consumer team.

Traditional DSL technologies are forecast to saturate at around 320 million lines in the residential market by 2014, with FTTH/B still growing fast at over 160 million lines by the end of the same year. In Asia-Pacific the move to FTTH/B will be even more pronounced, with FTTH/B connections overtaking DSL to be the leading technology in 2014.