The FTTx market's growth momentum carried on into the second half of 2009, with FTTx customer numbers worldwide rising to 63 million, which marks a more than 16% increase in six months. But beyond these figures that reflect the current situation, there have been several announcements from private operators and governments that have confirmed the interest in very high-speed access in most parts of the world.FTTx market, FTTH/B.

Valerie CHAILLOU

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
 
 
COMMUNICATIONS & STRATEGIES, 78, 2
nd  Q. 2010, p. 19.  www.comstrat.org 
General Overview of FTTx Markets at end 2009 (*) 
Valérie CHAILLOU  
IDATE, Montpellier, France 
 
World FTTx market 
The FTTx market's growth momentum carried on into the second half of 
2009, with FTTx customer numbers worldwide rising to 63 million, which 
marks a more than 16% increase in six months. But beyond these figures 
that reflect the current situation, there have been several announcements 
from private operators and governments that have confirmed the interest in 
very high-speed access in most parts of the world. 
Table 1 - FTTx subscribers by geographical area at the end of 2009 
  FTTH/B VDSL  FTTLA  FTTx+LAN  Total  FTTx  Total 
Broadband (*) 
Western 
Europe  2 048 900  1 733 200  31 000  0  3 813 100 
Eastern & 
Central Europe 3 552 335  39 850  0  180 000  3 772 185 
150 128 000 
North America  5 706 500  3 200 000  0  0  8 906 500  100 082 000 
Latin America  5 500  0  0  0  5 500  23 351 000 
Asia  29 593 300  3 500  0  17 100 000  46 696 800  187 207 000 
Middle East & 
Africa  173 322  20 000  0  0  88 322  11 366 000 
TOTAL World  41 083 357  4 996 550  31 000  17 280 000  63 285 907  472 134 000 
(*) Including DSL, cable modem and FTTx subscribers 
                       
(*) IDATE has been monitoring the development of Ultra-Broadband since the beginning, 
notably through an annual watch service designed to provide users with data on FTTx markets 
and rollouts around the globe, along with comprehensive analysis of what is at stake in this 
growing market: (1) Database: a unique market database that is updated constantly, segmented 
by country and technology, along with forecasts for the coming months and years; (2) Insights: 
a brief monthly analysis on an outstanding market issue; (3) Quarterly market update: 
Technologies, operator strategies, business models, public funding, services delivered over 
FTTx… (4) Analyst support: hotline, webinars, briefings… 
For more information, see: www.idate-research.com 20     No. 78, 2
nd Q. 2010 
Over the next five years, this is likely to translate into a significant 
increase in the number of subscribers and homes passed: by the end of 
2014, there will be close to 119 million subscribers and 306 million homes 
passed for FTTH/B around the globe, of which more than half will still be 
located in Asia and 18% in Western Europe. 
Except for Russia moving from 6
th place in mid-2009 to 4
th place by the 
end of the year, the top 10 ranking in terms of FTTH/B customer numbers 
remains unchanged. 
Table 2 - Top 10 countries in terms of FTTH/B subscribers at the end of 2009 
Rank Country  FTTH/B  subscribers  Broadband 
Subscribers (**) 
1  Japan  17 140 000 31 646 000
2  South Korea 9 228 300 16 348 000 
3  USA  5 700 000 80 856 000
4  Russia  3 040 000 12 740 000 
5  Taiwan  1 675 000 5 762 000
6  Hong Kong  770 000 2 396 000
7  China (*)  710 000 103 226 000
8  Sweden  537 100 2 949 000
9  Italy  325 000 12 472 000
10  France  308 200 19 686 000
(*) Not included are the roughly 17 million FTTx +LAN subscribers in China. 
(**) including DSL, cable modem and FTTx subscribers 
Source: IDATE  
FTTx market by geographical area 
The distribution of FTTH/B subscribers around the globe did not change 
in the second half of 2009, which means that Asia is still the largest market, 
followed by North America and Western Europe. There has, however, been 
significant growth in Eastern Europe which accounted for 9% of the globe's 
FTTH/B subscribers at the end of the year, compared to 3% in June 2009. 
Eastern Europe, which has already pulled ahead of Western Europe, with 
3.5 million FTTH/B customers, compared to around 2 million in the west, is V. CHAILLOU  21 
forecast to have an even bigger subscriber base than North America starting 
in 2012. Some countries in that part of the world, such as Lithuania, have a 
particularly dynamic market and, in addition to swift and vast rollouts, are 
managing to persuade the eligible households to subscribe to ultra high-
speed access offers. 
Elsewhere – in Asia, for instance – marketing the services has become 
operators' primary concern, since coverage rates have already reached the 
saturation point in the most advanced markets. HKBN in Hong Kong is the 
operator marketing the most competitively priced offer of anywhere in the 
world: 1 Gbps for 26 USD a month. 
In 2014, 18 countries will have deployed optical fibre networks to more 
than 50% of homes, which is 10 more than at the end of 2009. 
Figure 1 - FTTH/B subscriber distribution around the world at the end of 2009 
Asia
72%
Western 
Europe
5%
Eastern 
Europe
9%
North 
America
14%
 
Source: IDATE 
FTTx market by technology 
FTTH/B is by far the most widely deployed ultra high-speed architecture 
as FTTH/B subscribers currently account for close to 65% of all FTTx 
customers. 
Next in line in terms of customer numbers is FTTx+LAN architecture, 
although this is due chiefly to its massive deployment in China and so is not 
really reflective of an interest from all operators involved in superfast 
broadband rollouts around the world. 22     No. 78, 2
nd Q. 2010 
Meanwhile, VDSL has made real strides, reporting a 53% increase in 
customers between June and December 2009, although its deployment is 
expected to slow in the coming months, following recent announcements 
from several telcos, including Deutsche Telekom and BT, who have stated 
that they will be focusing chiefly on FTTH/B from now on. 
Figure 2 - Global market share of the different ultra high-speed architectures, end of 2009 
FTTLA
0%
VDSL
8%
FTTH/B
65%
FTTx/LAN
27%
 
Source: IDATE 
 
 
 

General Overview of FTTx Markets at end 2009

http://repec.idate.fr/RePEc/idt/journl/CS7801/CS78_CHAILLOU.pdf

General Overview of FTTx Markets at end 2009

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