FTTH Council Releases New Stats, Says Stimulus Projects 38% Complete

The number of North American households connected directly into optical fiber networks grew by 13 percent over the past year, indicating that telecommunications companies of all sizes are continuing to upgrade to next-generation fiber to the home technologies, according to the Fiber-to-the-Home Council Americas.

The Council released figures prepared by the market analyst firm RVA LLC showing that 900,000 households across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean were upgraded to FTTH service since April 2011, as the total number of North American homes with all-fiber connections surged past eight million. The figures showed that FTTH is now being offered to 19.3 million homes on the continent. About 95 percent of FTTH households are in the United States, which began to see a significant expansion of fiber deployment in 2004 when Verizon began upgrading to FTTH in much of its wireline footprint, but deployment in other North American countries is now beginning to rise. Canadian households now represent three percent of FTTH on the continent and the remaining two percent are in Mexico and the Caribbean. The RVA survey also found that, on average, government supported FTTH stimulus projects are now 38 percent complete, with indications that many will start connecting subscribers this year. Environmental reviews and heavy demand for fiber optic cable were cited as reasons for the delays.