Technology news and Jobs 
Telecommunications US study raises doubts about adequacy of FTTN
Telecommunications US study raises doubts about adequacy of FTTN | US study raises doubts about adequacy of FTTN |
|
| by Stuart Corner | |
| Tuesday, 03 April 2007 | |
  
Latest research from the US shows that the number of homes connected direct to fibre has doubled in the past 12 months, raising doubts about the adequacy of Australian plans for fibre to the node networks.
Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
The study also shows that FTTH is being installed by a wide range of incumbent and competitive providers, and not just large telephone companies. Small rural telephone companies, medium-sized telephone service providers and cable companies, private facilities-based competitive local exchange carriers and public entities such as municipalities and public utilities accounted for more than 430,000 FTTH subscribers. "While Verizon is by far the largest single provider of FTTH services, our figures show that there are more than 340 companies serving customers with these ultra high bandwidth services," said Mike Render of RVA Market Research, author of the study. "In fact, small rural telephone companies are actually leading the way in terms of penetration – with three percent of their combined customer base now connected via fibre-to-the-home." Render said that, while the US continues to lag behind Japan in the total number of homes connected to FTTH, it had taken a commanding lead in terms of the growth rate in direct fibre optic connections. Joe Savage, president of the FTTH Council, commented: "Clearly, America's need for speed is driving sustainable, accelerated growth in the deployment of high bandwidth fibre to homes across the country. We expect this rate of growth will continue as an increasing number of Americans discover the ease with which video entertainment, gaming, and data applications are delivered through fibre-enabled connections." According to TIA's 2007 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast, http://www.tiaonline.org/business/research/mrf/index.cfm the US telecommunications market grew 9.3 percent in 2006 – its fastest rate since 2000 – and the worldwide telecommunications market grew 11.2 percent. TIA president Grant Seiffer, commented: "This study reinforces a major trend in our industry, namely investment in new fibre, new IP technology and new wireless infrastructure to provide state-of-the-art voice, video and data services." These growth figures are in stark contrast to the just-released forecasts for the Australian market from Telsyte. However Telsyte looked specifically at connectivity revenues not overall industry revenues. Both the FTTH Council and the TIA have urged policymakers to reduce barriers to next-generation broadband deployment, with the FTTH Council recently calling on the US government to adopt a strategy for universal access to broadband connections at transmission speeds of 100Mbps. Further information on the study, including graphs and charts, can be found at http://www.ftthcouncil.org.{moscomment} |
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
