The number of North American households served directly by fiber grew by 13 percent over the past year, according to the Fiber-to-the-Home Council Americas and figures prepared by the market analyst firm RVA LLC.
The newly released figures show that 900,000 households across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean were upgraded to FTTH service since April 2011, as the total number of North American homes with all-fiber connections surged past eight million. The figures showed that FTTH is now being offered to 19.3 million homes on the continent.
Some highlights of the report:
- The U.S. accounts for about 95 percent of FTTH households in North America, while Canada is 3% and Mexico is 2%.
- Verizon continues to be by far the largest FTTH provider on the continent by far.
- The number of FTTH network operators in North America is nearing 1,000, thanks to the increasing number of small and medium-sized incumbent telephone companies, most located in rural and small town areas. The vast majority of these FTTH network operators serve fewer than 10,000 subscribers.
- On average, government supported FTTH stimulus projects are now 38 percent complete, with indications that many will start connecting subscribers this year.
- There is growing activity among FTTH providers in fiber to the cell tower construction, with more than 1500 towers connected by small, single state providers in 2011.
“The notion that the upgrade to FTTH can be a catalyst for economic development is precisely what is driving this enormous interest in high-speed fiber we are seeing at the community level across North America,” said Heather Burnett Gold, President of the FTTH Council Americas. “Civic leaders in communities of all sizes have a sense that more bandwidth means more opportunities for economic progress.”http://www.ftthcouncil.org