The faltering worldwide economy isn’t slowing down the progression of fiber upgrades throughout world , according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

 

The report, “Fiber in the Last Mile (News - Alert): Best Practices, Adoption Trends and the Impact of the Economic Downturn,” says deployments of FTTx networks in Asia-Pacific, North America and Western Europe has passed the stage of early adopters and are led by both telecom incumbents and competitive broadband network operators.

 

"We found that telcos' need for fiber to the home remains strong, especially in developed markets, where deployments are driven by the maturity of the broadband markets and a proliferation of IP-based video, TV and interactive applications," said Ozgur Aytar, senior Research Manager at Pyramid Research and co-author of the report.

 

The study also claims that 98 million homes worldwide are now passed by FTTB/FTTH networks globally and another 74 million homes by VDSL2 networks.

 

Of the 98 million homes passed, says Aytar, 70 percent are located in Asia-Pacific where NTT in Japan was among the first to pioneer large-scale FTTH upgrades in 2000. Europe and North America each accounts for 15 percent of the homes passed, and both have plenty of catching up to do in the next five years.

 

"After losing the voice game to mobile players in the early 2000s, fixed-line operators can hardly allow the same to happen with the broadband business, which has kept them afloat when voice revenue tanked," said Aytar.

 

The report also found that with mobile operators now offering broadband at speeds and prices equivalent to entry-level ADSL subscriptions, telcos have little time to procrastinate.