BUSINESS & FINANCE

Leading FTTH countries in Europe by connected households (000s, 2014) Russia France

4650 2900 Germany

Netherlands Italy

Sweden Spain UK

Denmark Norway Portugal

Switzerland 0 550 480 420 1000 2000 3000 4000 Connected households (thousands), December 2014 Source: FTTH Council

‘Some countries in Eastern Europe such as Lithuania have a particularly dynamic market’

Leading FTTH countries in Europe by household penetration (2014) Slovenia Sweden Denmark Norway

29.2% 27.2% 26.2% Netherlands

Slovak Republic Finland Portugal France

Switzerland 0% 5% 10% 17.0% 13.7% 12.9% 12.5% 15% 20% 25% 30% Household penetration, December 2014 Source: FTTH Council

European region FTTH forecast by connected households (000s) 30,000

25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0

23,319 16,420 10,665 7,200 4,872

2007 1,584

2008 2,399

2009 3,333

35% 40%

20.4% 20.0%

35.8% 5000

800 770

680 1440

1350 1300

European connections Looking ahead, the FTTH Council says just over 23 million European households will be connected to FTTH/FTTB at the end of 2014—about 8% of all homes in the region—in the 38 countries covered by its forecast (see bottom chart). In the EU, the total will reach 16 million, or 8.3% of all homes. Six of the 21 nations individually

analysed by the the FTTH Council are forecast to achieve 20% penetration by 2014: Slovenia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Slovakia (middle chart). But on current trends, seven of those 21 countries will still be under 10% penetration at the end of 2014: the UK, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany. The UK had 86,000 FTTH/B homes

passed at the end of last year (3,650 subscribers). That compares with 5.73 million in France (308,000 subscribers), 2.19 million in Italy (325,000 subscribers), 1.30 million in Sweden (537,000 subscrib- ers), 576,000 in the Netherlands (195,000) and 538,000 in Germany (87,000). Unlike in many other regions, incum-

bents are not currently the major providers of FTTH in Europe, and the Council says this will likely remain the case through the next five years: altnets and broadband providers accounting for 41% of FTTH connections; (former) incumbents 33%; and municipal local authorities and utilities companies 26%. Idate in its research says Eastern Europe

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Source: FTTH Council 12

currently has 3.5 million FTTH/B customers compared to around 2 million in Western Europe: “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 house- holds to subscribe to ultra high-speed access offers.” The FTTH Council records 726,000 FTTH/B homes passed in Lithuania at the end of last year (240,000 subscribers), 1 million in Bulgaria (29,000 subscribers), 615,000 in Slovakia (63,000) and 415,000 in Slovenia (71,000). n

www.totaltele.com July/August 2010 2550

during the planned eight-year project. Alcatel-Lucent also won an additional A$15 million contract to provide engi- neering and testing services over the next 12 months during the initial deployment.

Connected households, 000s