This week, LuxExpo in Luxembourg-Kirchberg is hosting the FTTH Conference 2016 promoting Fibre To The Home and organised by the FTTH Council Europe for an international audience of experts in telecommunications and technology.
More than 3,000 people registered to attend the 3-day event, including representatives from the European Commission, national governments and municipalities, as well as management-level representatives from industry as well as academia. The event included workshops, conference sessions, leading edge exhibition and hands-on demos of FTTH-enabled services.
On Wednesday, Edgar Aker, President of the FTTH Council Europe, explained that the decision to hold the 2016 event in Luxembourg is the Grand Duchy's broadband plan which includes accelerating the fibre option; last year's event was held in Warsaw and next year will be in Marseille.
Valérie Chaillou presented the Broadband Panorama which comprises 29 countries in Europe, with three new countries: Poland, Croatia and Germany. Some countries like Spain and Portugal have shown a significant increase in fibre connectivity. In total, there are more than 35.9 million FTTH/B subscribers with 127 million homes passed, with Russian and Ukraine representing more than 50%. 2014 was an important year for FTTH, with the first 9 months of 2015 (available figures) being slower. Poland showed the greatest percentage uptake in 2015, with Slovakia not far behind; these are thanks to the actions of several players to increase broadband penetration in those countries. Luxembourg's FTTH penetration is just above half-way. Finland is the only country with more than half of the homes on broadband fibre, with a 51% take-up rate.
World-wide, South Korea has the highest take-up, percentage-wise, with UAE, Singapore, Qatar and Hong Kong not far behind, all around 70%.
Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Edgar Aker, Valérie Chaillou
