North American FTTH drops seen topping 10 million

The number of homes in North America connected to a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network has passed 10 million for the first time, said Michael Render, owner and chief analyst at RVA LLC, at the recent FTTH Conference (Sep. 30-Oct. 2) in Tampa, FL.

RVA is a market research firm that frequently provides research services to the FTTH Council Americas, who hosts the conference. The number of FTTH connections on the continent has grown steadily since 2004, RVA says, and reached 9 million in September 2012, as reported by our sister site, Lightwave. The U.S. accounts for 90% of the current North American connections, RVA's Render added.

As recorded by Lightwave's Stephen Hardy, the latest figures, which illustrate the state of play as of September 2013, also show the number of homes passed has reached 27.7 million (versus 24.3 million in September 2012), while homes marketed have reached 25.5 million.

See also: Fiber micro-trenching at Google

In the U.S., Tier 1 ILECs, led by Verizon, reportedly account for 76.7 of the country’s 9.6 million FTTH connections. Other ILECs have connected 10.4% of the country’s total FTTH subscribers, with municipalities and public utilities combining for another 4.2%. This last group has nearly half of the country’s gigabit networks, 11 of the 26 RVA have identified. Competitive access providers, including Google, account for another nine such networks.

Render also reported that take rates for FTTH networks in the U.S. continue to grow. The average take rate for FTTH networks in the country reached 45.8% last month, he said.

Source:Lightwave