Brussels, 16/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Europe now has 3.9 million FTTH (Fibre to the home) subscribers, an 18% increase over six months, according to the most recent statistics provided by IDATE (European Audiovisual and Telecommunications Institute), which were unveiled at the annual FTTH Conference in Milan. This conference focuses on fibre optics and new generation networks in Europe. The number of subscribers has risen to 8.1 million, including those in Russia. Nevertheless, the industry hopes to speed up development of FTTH to reach the EU objectives on broadband, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes declared at this event, “time is against us. The current rate of new connections - now down to 25,000 a day - is simply not enough to meet our 2020 targets”. The European Union's digital strategy would like basic high-speed cover for all citizens by 2013 and very high-speed coverage of 30 megabytes per second by 2020, with high-speed access of 100 MB for 50% of all homes at the very least.
FTTH technology will allow high-speed access to the internet. Data provided by IDATE revealed that the five biggest European countries in terms of FTTH subscriptions are competing with each other over first place but their positions remained identical to the previous league table: with 23%, Lithuania keeps its first place, followed by Sweden (14%), Norway (13%), Slovenia (12%) and Slovakia (9%). At a global level, Lithuania is far behind South Korea, which is the world's number one with 54% of connections, Japan (36%), Hong Kong (34%), United Arab Emirates (32%) and Taiwan (28%). The US only had 8% of connections.
According to the president of the FTTH Council Europe, Chris Holden, Europe is currently at a crossroads and has to opt for a solution that promotes investment in new fibre-optic networks. The president of Etno, Luigi Gambardella, pointed out that the traditional telecoms and electronic communications operators were the main investors in new generation access (NGA) and that they had to be encouraged to invest. Two conditions are essential to creating a favourable environment. The first is to ensure that the internet develops in an appropriate framework, given the explosion of data traffic. In order to achieve this aim, networks have to be supervised and receive investment. However, competitive pressures make services available at reduced costs, putting the industry's investment capacity in danger. The second is a regulatory environment adapted to the level of competition in each market, in order to encourage venture capital. Artificially reducing wholesale access prices for copper broadband network and systematic application of cost-based access obligations to NGA would dissuade investors, explained Etno. (I.L./transl.fl)