Ireland is one of the fastest growing markets in Europe for FTTH/B Homes passed

The FTTH Council Europe revealed the 2020 Market Panorama and the latest figures outlining fibre deployment trends in Europe prepared by IDATE.

European Ranking

The number of home passed are increasing

The total number of homes passed with FTTH and FTTB in the EU391 reached nearly 172 million homes compared to 160 million in 2018 with now 19 countries counting more than 2 million homes passed.

The main winners in terms of homes passed in absolute numbers are France (+3.5 M), Italy (+1.9 M) and Spain (+1.5 M). The top five of the annual growth rates in terms of homes passed is headed by Belgium (+307%), Ireland (+70.4%), Switzerland (+69.1%), United Kingdom (+50.8%) and Germany (33.5%).

No new countries joined the market panorama this year. Last year the UK joined at 1% penetration. This year the UK’s penetration rate has grown to nearly 3% of all households.

Rural roll out

Driven by the EC Digital Agenda, local governments across Europe have shown their commitment to work with telecommunications companies to roll out fibre in both urban and rural communities. They are providing subsidies and policy frameworks to rapidly increase fibre expansion.

This applies to both urban and isolated rural areas which are now a clear target area for all sorts of companies to roll out fibre. The big telcos, incumbents, altnets and local authorities all have projects to connect communities in rural areas.

Ireland, where 4site is based, is not included this year as the data was gathered before the National Broadband Plan (NBP) began roll out.

Overall the outlook looks good for fibre roll out across Europe. We are seeing lots of households signing up. In fact subscriptions have increased by 93%.

Let’s hope next year will see a greater take up rate, which remains low at an average of 30%.

If you are looking for a survey, design and planning partner for your fibre projects, contact 4site today.