Next generation broadband

While Fibre based broadband (FTTx) is growing at a break neck pace in North America and Asia Pacific regions, Europe is trailing behind in this next generation broadband technology, as per the research report from Point-Topic. The report cites China as the nation with the largest number of FTTx connections which constitute more than 30 percent of total FTTx connections around the world. Presently, there are about 30 million FTTx connections in all the seven regions of the world. A year back, the FTTx base was less than half of its present size. No doubt, FTTx has grown by leaps and bounds during last year as the USA, the major FTTx country in North America has seen an explosive growth (150 %) in this section.

South Korea is reported to have increased its FTTx connections by more than 2 millions.By contrast, FTTx scenario in Europe looks dismal. The FTTx base in Europe has grown at less than ten percent during last year while North America has recorded 18.4 % growth. The USA, where the cable broadband is quite dominant over ADSL broadband, has more than twice the total FTTx connections spread in Europe. All the major broadband European nations, including the UK, have not shown any significant growth in FTTx base.

Globally, FTTx constitutes just above one-tenths of total broadband connections with a significant annual growth of 10 %, which is still good, considering its proportion to total size. More and more people go for FTTx in FTTx dominated nations primarily for faster speeds. FTTx can provide faster speeds up to 100 Mbps, which are available in many Asia Pacific countries like Japan, China and South Korea.Europe, including the UK faces many questions in this regard. Can the present technology meet the demands of the broadband subscribers at a time when broadband providers like TV over broadband and VoIP are becoming quite popular? Can the new ADSL+2 (up to 24 Mbps) provide faster broadband for the majority broadband customers in the UK? It is an obvious fact that the headline speeds fall drastically beyond the 500 meters circle in an ADSL+2 network.

Therefore, FTTx is a clear alternative, in this scenario. However, the new expansion plans by major providers like BT, do not seem to place emphasis on the FTTx technology.