The Growth of Fiber to the Home

Fiber to the home first became commercially viable about 13 years ago, and when the Council was founded in 2001 its market analyst, RVA LLC, measured about 19,000 homes in North America connected with end-to-end fiber.  Today FTTH is available to more than 20 million homes on the continent, and the number of homes connected to all-fiber networks now exceeds 7 million.  While 97 percent of North American FTTH is currently in the United States, a number of large Canadian telecoms have recently started FTTH deployment projects.

FTTH Homes Passed, Marketed and Connected (millions of households)...

With regard to the total broadband market, FTTH has now reached over 18% penetration of U.S. households in terms of homes passed and 6% in terms of homes connected.

Market Penetration -- U.S. Fiber to the Home

Regional Bell operating companies (primarily Verizon) represent over 73% of all North American FTTH connections.  While Verizon is the largest U.S. FTTH provider by a very large margin, there is actually a very long tail of other providers.   As of March 30, 2011, RVA estimates that there are more than 770 providers of FTTH in North America.  
 
Of these non-RBOC suppliers, smaller incumbent telephone suppliers (ILECs) account for 61% of the primary base.  Most of these are classified as “Tier 3” ILECs with a market concentration in one limited geographic area.   Some of these also have associated competitive or CLEC activity.  True facilities-based competitive providers (CLECs) and publicly owned systems (MUNIs) together account for 24% of the total.   The remaining builds are from integrators working with developers, MSO/cable TV companies, and electric utilities and coops.

FTTH Deployment by Provider Type...

Further, RVA has found that FTTH growth is likely to continue.  Some 65 percent  of small independent telephone companies that have not upgraded to FTTH said they would very likely do so in the future, with another 11 percent saying they were somewhat likely. More than 85 percent of those that have already deployed FTTH said they would be adding more direct fiber connections going forward.

The chart below represents how current FTTH service providers assess the likelihood that they will add more FTTH lines to their networks in the near  future....

In terms of actual number of homes connected with FTTH (and, in the case of the chart below, multi-dwelling units whose buildings are fiber-connected -- which is counted as FTTH only in international rankings), the U.S. ranks third among the world's economies with 8.7 million fiber connections.

Number of Fiber-Connected Homes by Country

In terms of market penetration, the U.S. ranks further down the list of countries at 7.62% of households with FTTH, as many smaller countries have embarked on aggressive efforts to wire up a maximum number of homes with fiber.  South Korea leads the world in the percentage of homes that are connected to all-fiber networks or whose multi-dwelling buildings have such connections.

Market Penetration of FTTH - Ranked by Country