Actualités

Twenty six percent increase in the number of homes passed for FTTH/B in Europe

29/09/2011
Inventory of FTTH/B in Europe

World FTTx Markets

Europe (EU-35)  reported a solid 26% increase in the number of FTTH/B homes passed in the first half of 2011. Growth has been slower when it comes to actual FTTH/B subscribers (14%) which proves that expanding coverage is still the top priority for players. There were nearly 4.6 million FTTH/B subscribers in the EU-35 by mid-year, and more than 25 million homes passed.
Among CIS countries, because of its specific demographic features, Russia leads the way in terms of FTTH/B subscribers and homes passed – and the potential of the Russian market is huge, with 5.1 million FTTH/B subscribers and 11.7 million homes passed as of June 2011. Ukraine is also home to nearly half a million FTTH/B subscribers, and we expect to see new players becoming involved in FTTH/B deployments in the near future.

As in previous years, IDATE has been commissioned by the FTTH Council Europe to provide an overview of the status of FTTH/B rollouts across Europe at the end of June 2011. To date, IDATE has identified around 260 FTTH/B projects in the EU-35.

The first type of player to become involved was alternative carriers which singlehandedly account for 55% of FTTH/B homes passed in Europe. Alternative carriers have performed rollouts in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and in Eastern Europe (Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria).

We include cable companies in this category as they are often involved in large-scale FTTB network rollouts – with examples that include Numericable in France and ER Telecom in Russia. Cablecos have the advantage of not having to negotiate building-by-building to access homes since the coaxial outlet is already installed plus, in a great many instances, the civil engineering to pull the fibre to the foot of the building has already been performed.

Another category of stakeholder is local authorities and regional power companies (which are often owned by public authorities). While this category represents only 12% of homes passed for fibre at the end of June 2011, it accounts for the largest number of FTTH/B projects, most of which are small scale ones – covering only a town. Their involvement will probably increase in other countries such as France and the UK through national programs.

These players can encounter difficulties when taking on the business of operator which usually has no correlation with their core responsibilities. To help alleviate these difficulties, we are seeing some of these small-scale rollouts being grouped together to form a network – with examples that include Stedenlink in the Netherlands, Netixopen in Finland and, in the form of an ISP, Waoo in Denmark. This allows the parties involved not only to pool their expertise but also to create a brand and to build a large customer base (to attract TV broadcasters, for instance).

The other category of player worth mentioning is incumbent carriers which account for 33% of FTTH/B homes passed in Europe. Virtually all of Europe’s incumbent carriers are either now involved in FTTH/B rollouts, are gearing up to it or are in the planning stages. Even those who originally opted for an FTTN+VDSL solution, such as KPN, Swisscom and now BT and Deutsche Telecom, are turning their attention to FTTH – in many cases as a result of the growing competitive pressure created by cable companies’ and local authorities’ fibre initiatives.

Excluding Russia, which leads the FTTH/B market in terms of subscribers and homes/buildings passed thanks to its demographic make-up (5.1 million FTTH/B subscribers alone), Sweden is still the leading market with 625,000 FTTH/B subscribers at end of June 2011. This leadership could be challenged in the near future by countries such as France, which is already home to nearly 560,000 FTTH/B subscribers. Other countries are also reporting strong growth and are now positioned in the top 10 in terms of number of homes/buildings passed. This is true of Ukraine, Romania and Portugal which ranked 3rd, 5th and 6th at end of June 2011.

Scandinavian countries, and notably Sweden and Norway, still lead the way in Europe in terms of penetration rate – with 39% and 62%, respectively. But the situation across Europe as a whole is still quite disparate as countries like Italy or France are still reporting low penetration rates (13.5% and 10%, respectively).

Regarding the technology deployed, Ethernet is still players’ first choice across the EU-39, and represented 71% of all FTTH/B rollouts at end of June 2011.

As concerns network architecture, FTTB still accounted for 61% of rollouts at the end of June 2011. Players are favouring an FTTB configuration as it allows them to avoid the issues that come with installing fibre on private property, and especially MDUs – i.e. having to negotiate with each property owner.
 

Roland Montagne   
Director, Telecoms Business Unit, IDATE
r.montagne@idate.org