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Europe not pushing enough fibre to the home
Fat pipe dreams just aren't enough

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Wednesday 18 April 2007

Europe is lagging behind other continents for fibre to the home (FTTH) technology.

Europe had roughly half the number of new FTTH subscribers as North America in the last quarter of 2006 and of those sign-ups more than three-quarters came from Russia, according to the World broadband statistics: Q4 2006 report from Point Topic.

Vince Chook, analyst for Point Topic and report author, said Europe will rapidly become the "digital slowcoach" on the information superhighway without fibre.

South Korea has added close to two million FTTH subscribers, the US market grew by more than 150 per cent in the past year and China has more than one-third of all fibre subscriptions in the world, according to Chook.

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At the end of 2006, there were 30 million FTTH lines globally, representing a year-on-year growth of 55 per cent, the report said.

If the UK fails to offer the same bandwidth as other countries the pace of innovation in the economy could slow and the digital divide could widen, according to a recent report from the Broadband Stakeholders Group.

Despite splashing out around €15bn on its all-IP next generation network by 2010 – known as 21CN - last week BT announced investment in the 24Mbps-capable infrastructure has knocked hopes of FTTH technology in the UK.

Japan's NTT, however, will spend up to €40bn in the same period on a network capable of delivering 100Mbps, according to the Point Topic report.