Fiber to the Home - FTTH » FTTH

Now more than 5 million FTTH subscribers in North America

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:39:40 +0000

November 2009 - A recent study by RVA Market Research concluded that now more than 5 million people are subscribed to services delived over a FTTH network. The total of homes connected to a FTTH network almost amount 18 million at this moment.

‘ The march to all-fiber networks is showing no sign of letting up in the United States and Canada,” says Joe Savage, president of the FTTH Council, which promotes and tracks the growth of fiber to the home in North America. “Given the growing sophistication and bandwidth requirements of online and video applications, as well as the high satisfaction that current FTTH subscribers are expressing about their fiber service, the growing consumer demand for end-to-end fiber is now a fact of life and something that our members are working hard to satisfy.”

This also means the take rate, that is the relation between the number of connections and the number of people subscribing to services delivered over FTTH networks is going up. This is good news for companies like Verizon that deploy these expensive networks, as it means more and more people recognize the value of the services over FTTH networks.

Fiber to the home broadband keeps on expanding in Asia

Sat, 30 May 2009 22:00:33 +0000

Broadband technologies as fiber to the home have experiences tremendous growth the last years. In anticipation of future growth and bandwidth capacity requirements operators like NTT in Japan have invested large amounts in their networks. Growth in the Asean countries varies quite a lot by country. For instance Hong Kong has been an early adaptor of FTTH and the penetration grade is high, well over 20% at the moment. Countries with low penetration grades are for instance China and India, though China is gearing up and investing a lot in fiber networks. Besides Hong Kong also Japan, South Korea and Taiwan occupy the top positions in fiber to the home deployment. It might be surprising for some of you that Asia is leading in FTTH, and both Europe and the US are following. The US is catching up though and large investments by Verizon and AT&T have increased the penetration in the US as well. In Europe the Scandinavian countries are leading, while Germany and France are investing more in FTTH networks. Ranking lists are made up by the Fiber to the Home council. This council is organized in European, American, Apac and Latin American sections. Overall estimates are that almost 70 million homes are passed by fiber infrastructure, meaning the people who live in those homes could subscribe to services like high speed internet, HDTV etc. Around 25 million households are actually subscribed to those services at the moment in Asia. So far in Asia Video has been the main driver for growth for FTTH networks. There is a growing demand for HDTV (high definition TV) as well as other high speed services as gaming and real-time internet services.

Anybody involved in fiber is excited about the current state of the industry. Despite the economic downturn caused by the financial crisis, still major investments are made in fiber deployment. This indicates the strenght of the industry, its major players with their long term strategy, as well as high expectations of economic return. Long term visions are needed, as high deployment costs have been one of the main factors of the -relative- slow growth of fiber to the home networks.

What are the benefits of Fiber to the Home (FTTH)?

Tue, 26 May 2009 16:27:42 +0000

Many have heard of internet, or HDTV, or fiber to the home (FTTH) networks. But many may consider FTTH as the next technology hype, perhaps unaware of the benefits and large potential FTTH has. Though FTTH is getting beyond its infancy state. In the USA there are now over 6 million subscribers of services of fiber networks, many via Verizon FioS or AT&T U-verse services. In Japan the number of subscribers is more than double of the USA, worldwide there are over 30 million subscribers.
First of all, and most important, FTTH offers so much bandwidth capacity that grow in data demand (TV, internet, phone) for the next decades will be covered. FTTH is ready for future demand, like for instance 3D high definition TV still being developed at this moment. Or just imagine the growth in online games that has taken place during the last years. FTTH will be able to provide gigabits per second, via a very reliable network. Everybody who has seen a demonstration of a fiber to the home network vs. a copper/DSL network is sold on the concept.

Historically costs of deployment have been an issue to move FTTH forward. As every house or condo has to be connected separately high costs were involved. Costs have been coming down a lot through smart engineering, e.g. development of pre- connectorized cables. The economics for large FTTH, FTTC, FTTP, FTTN or other FTTX deployment for service providers like Verizon and AT&T is working out. End-customers in general pay at least 20% more for FTTH services than for DSL or other copper based services, but this premium is well worth the investment for what you get in terms of additional data capabilities and speed.

The main telecommunications companies have been deploying fiber to the home networks in the most populated areas in the USA. Think New York, San Francisco, Houston, Boston etc. Via the stimulus money provided by the Obama government more money will be available as tax cuts and grants for small rural municipalities to deploy their own fiber networks. This means in future the fiber infrastructure will be all over the US and more services are expected.

Hard times for telecom equipment manufacturers…

Sat, 16 May 2009 16:51:16 +0000

During the last weeks many telecom equipment providers have announced their Q1-2009 earnings. And it did not look that good. Perhaps some of us thought that when Verizon and AT&T announced their very reasonable Q1 figures (both for wireless and wireline like FTTH), the telecom equipment manufacturs must be doing ok as well. Nothing is further from the thruth: Alcatel-Lucent announed a loss of US$400 million, Nokia-Siemens showed similar figures and Ericsson did somewhat better, though still far from where is could and should be. Cost cutting is the motto and perhaps some further consolidation in the telecommunications equipment industry is needed as well.

Fiber to the Home overview by Verizon

Fri, 01 May 2009 07:27:26 +0000

This video is a bit older (2007), but still gives a nice overview of fiber to the home depolyment by Verizon. Verizon offers FIOS in many locations, FIOS is a true example of a fiber to the home program, where the fiber really runs to the homes. Check out their video on FTTH" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfeqZy0c5PI

Why is FTTH needed?

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:11:00 +0000

The FTTH council explains what Fiber to the Home is, and why it is so important. It is an older video, but gives a nice overview though:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4988qaCvvM

Fibra à casa, FTTH

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:46:15 +0000

Fibra à casa, ou FTTH, ou Fiber to the Home, é uma rede dos telecomunicações baseados na fibra óptica. A maioria das redes foi baseada tradicional em cabos de cobre ou coaxiais. As redes de fibra óptica reservam grandes quantidades de transferência de dados comparada a outras redes. Isto inclui os serviços da tevê, do Internet e do telefone. Durante últimos anos as companhias tais como Verizon e Telefonica desdobraram redes óticas da fibra. Fibra a casa, ou FTTH, significa que a fibra vai até a casa ou o apartamento, de encontro por exemplo a FTTC, ou a fibra ao lancil onde a fibra trabalha até seu lancil e a infra-estrutura de cobre existente é usada para transferência de dados.

Muitos países em Ásia são principais no acesso de FTTH dos clientes, dos países que os líderes são a Coreia do Sul, de Hong Kong e de Japão. Em Europa especial os países nórdicos são principais. Nos EUA diversas companhias unfolding uma rede do firbra à casa, FTTH, e começaram com as áreas povoadas. O pacote do estimulo do governo de Obama contem os incentivos para o depolyment de FTTH nas áreas a rurar. Estas áreas são seridas frequentemente pelas pequenas empresas de telecomunicações rurais.

O futuro de FTTH parece de brilho, como os consumidores não obstante exigem mais dados devido ao uso do aumento de YouTube, transference da música e das películas etc., que a competição das companhias do cabo do traditonal com as companhias das telecomunicações conseguirá ser mais feroz, desde que ambos incorporaram o mesmo reino dos serviços do consumidor.

Fiber to the Home, FTTH

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:02:26 +0000

Fiber to the Home or FTTH is a telecommunications network based on optical fiber. Traditionally most networks were based on a copper or coaxial cables. Optical fiber networks allow for a high volume of data transfer compared to other networks. This includes TV, internet and phone services (so called tripple play). Over the last years companies like Verizon and AT&T have deployed fiber networks across the USA. Fiber to the Home, or FTTH, means the fiber runs all the way to your home or apartment, vs e.g. FTTC or Fiber to the Curb where the fiber runs till your curb and the existing copper infrastructure is used for the last yards of data transfer (and hence forming the bottle neck).

Optical Fiber has been used since a long time for long haul communications (e.g. the cables lying on the bottom of our ocean which take care of communications between the continents), however FTTH is a rather new development with high expectations. Many countries in Asia are leading in the access of FTTH by customers, leading countries are South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. In Europe especially the Nordic countries are leading. In the US several companies are deploying a fiber to the home, FTTH, and have started with the most populated areas. The Obama government stimulus package contains incentives for the deployment of FTTH in rural areas. These areas are often served by small rural telecommunications companies.

The future of FTTH looks bright, as consumers require more data due to increase usage of YouTube, downloading of music and movies etc. However, competition from the traditonal cable companies with the telecommunications companies will become more fierce, as both have entered the same realm of consumer services.

Welcome to FTTH- Fiber to the home

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:19:46 +0000

Welcome to Fiber to the Home – FTTH. This website is meant to share opinions, news and experiences on all fiber to the home, curb, premise (FTTH, FTTP, FTTC) or any other FTTX variant. Share your comments and views with novice and industry experts. Let us know what you think…!