Europe claims 8.1 million of world's FTTH base, but price remains an obstacle

Europe's presence in the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) segment has grown to 8.1 million subscribers, according to the latest report by the FTTH Council Europe during its annual FTTH Conference 2011 in Milan, Italy. However, it appears that even in areas where FTTH service is available, penetration rates barely rose above 17.5 percent as of the end of 2010. So what's preventing subscribers from lighting up a FTTH connection? Well, for one it appears that the majority of European broadband customers are in no hurry to give up their low-priced DSL-based Internet connection just to switch to FTTH. And while FTTH does provide higher speeds that far surpass what's available on DSL, the biggest challenge service providers will face in convincing current DSL consumers to switch to FTTH will lie in their ability to provide competitively priced offerings.