Fiber-to-the-Home Market Penetration on the Rise, Overtakes Cable Broadband Globally

From a global perspective, rising fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) market penetration has positioned the technology as the fastest growing broadband access method, overtaking cable broadband reports Point Topic. Total global broadband subscribers reached 751 million as of Q4 2015, according to Point Topic’s research. Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) and FTTH market penetration is on the rise, and legacy copper based broadband access lines (DSL, ADSL and ADSL2+) are no longer the dominant method for broadband. In fact, legacy copper based broadband access lines declined 18.7% from 2014 to 2015. FTTH access lines increased by 60.6% during the same period according to Point Topic. FTTx, which includes FTTN access, like AT&T’s U-verse platform, increased by 14.7%. There are now more global FTTH subscribers than cable broadband, with growth in Asia accelerating. In China alone, the number of subscribers who swapped FTTH from copper based broadband is nearly equivalent to the entire South Korean copper broadband market, says Point Topic.