Over 2mn households in US now have fibre-to-the-home connections

October 4, 2007 – The number of households in the US with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections has now reached 2.14mn, representing 2% of all homes in the country, according to a new study by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council.

There were 1.01mn fibre connections in September 2006, indicating a growth rate of 112%, compared to a growth rate of 99% in March of this year.  The study also found that FTTH connections now pass 9.55mn US households, compared to 6.1mn a year previously.  The number of households that receive video services such as IPTV over their FTTH connection has also increased dramatically over the past six months to reach 1.05mn, meaning an annual growth rate of around 160%.

“Clearly, American consumers want what only fibre can deliver – and that is a pipe big enough to handle the high-bandwidth Internet and video applications of the future,” commented Joe Savage, President of the FTTH Council.  Savage added that while Verizon continues to lead the FTTH market with around two-thirds of total installations, 369 other service providers hold around one third of the US market.  “We’re continuing to see small and medium-sized telephone companies, cable television companies, municipalities and public electric utilities get into the FTTH game and be highly successful at it.”

Michael Render of RVA Market Research, who authored the study, forecast further acceleration of FTTH growth within a coupe of years: “While annual growth in the number of connections has doubled for the past two years, we expect to see a further increase in the growth rate as more high-bandwidth applications come to market and as more major service providers begin offering fibre to the home.”