European FTTH/B rollout up 6.8% – report

News and Business

According to the Market Panorama released by the FTTH Council Europe at the recent FTTH Conference, as of September 2022, FTTH/B coverage (i.e. premises passed) in the 27 EU countries (including the UK) was up 6.8% year-on-year, giving a total of 55.3% of premises passed. For the EU 39 countries (including UK) the figures were 5.3% and 62% respectively. Take-up for the EU 27 + UK over the same period however, was a mere 0.4% with a total of 52.8% subscribers as a percentage of homes passed. For the EU 39, including the UK was 1%, with a total of 49.5% subscribers as a % of homes passed.

The UK is leading the way in terms of homes passed which has accelerated extremely rapidly since the report’s data collection point of September 2022. Full fibre coverage had reached 42% of UK homes, or around 12.4 million, by September 2022, representing an increase of 4.3 million homes between 2021 and 2022. Italy and Germany have also increased the FTTH deployment since 2021, although VDSL technologies remain the most widespread to date.

The report notes however, that there have also been significant regional actions this year which impact the accuracy of data from Ukraine and as a result, the FTTH Council have removed Russia and Belarus from individual mention in the report due to their actions and support of the invasion of Ukraine.

Regarding the specific case of Ukraine, FTTH/B coverage in the country is estimated to be around 67% of total homes in September 2022, but there is no current data on the level of damage caused by the war on FTTH networks in Ukraine and despite seeing reports of amazing efforts to maintain the network as much as possible, it is not yet known how fast these networks can be rebuilt.

For more information, visit www.ftthcouncil.eu