More than 105 milli
on broadband service subscribers around the world are now served by hybrid fiber (FTTx) network connections, as the global base of broadband subscribers approaches 635 million, according to the Broadband Forum.
A study produced by Point Topic for the Broadband Forum revealed that FTTx hybrid fiber access experienced the greatest market gain, with total fiber deployments (FTTx and FTTH) increasing to more than 125 million.
Fifty-four million new broadband subscribers were added from 3Q 2011 to 3Q 2012; 26 million (48%) are being served by fiber, according to the Broadband Forum. Fiber deployments overall now surpass cable to account for 19.7% of global broadband market. The number of broadband lines worldwide rose by more than 12 million during 3Q 2012 despite a difficult and challenging economic backdrop, the Forum notes.
“As the world gradually emerges from financial turmoil the continued growth of broadband has been a steady light in the storm,” Point Topic CEO Oliver Johnson was quoted in a press release. “We won’t see the triple digit growth of old but many markets are entering a phase of consolidation and consumer multi-service alignment.”
The Broadband Forum continues its work to further advance use of fiber networking. It’s adding to its Broadband Suite 5.0 release to catalyze passive optic network (PON) deployment, and its G-PON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) ONU (Optical Network Unit) Certification Program, known as BBF.247 is expanding to include products with Ethernet interfaces.
