More than 10 countries worldwide currently provide fiber in at least 95 percent of homes, according to the latest data from global consultancy firm Arthur D. Little.
The report, entitled “The race to gigabit fiber”, reveals that global fiber coverage in the benchmarked countries has soared from 39 percent in 2012 to 66 percent in 2020, including the 10-plus markets with almost ubiquitous fiber.
In almost all fiber-leading markets, the incumbent has taken the lead in rolling out nationwide fiber but in an increasing number of European countries, alternative operators have secured significant investment support to deliver promised nationwide fiber coverage in the next 4 to 6 years, said the report.
These include Open Fiber in Italy, CityFibre in the UK, Swiss Open Fiber in Switzerland and Deutsche Glasfaser and inexio in Germany, the latter two targeting mostly rural and underserved suburban areas.
In the case of Germany, the two alternative providers, Deutsche Glasfaser and inexio, which target mostly rural and underserved suburban areas, have announced plans to deploy fiber to approximately 8 million additional homes by 2030, moving the coverage from a current 11 percent up to approximately 28 percent.
Saudi Arabia is also betting on boosting its FTTH performance by launching a new open access initiative in cooperation with all operators in the market.
Take-up rates have also improved in line with the rising coverage, increasing from an average of 15 percent in 2012 to 42 percent among the researcher’s benchmark countries thanks to effective migration initiatives in countries such as Singapore, Qatar and the UAE.
The other driving force increasing the take-up rate is high competitive intensity in the broadband market, a phenomenon that’s prominent in Portugal and Spain where fiber networks compete with cable and where fixed-mobile convergence rates are particularly high.
