UK below 'emerging markets' in European optical fibre league

Less than one per cent of UK households subscribe to optical fibre-based services.

This is one of the findings of the latest survey of European fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) rollouts from the FTTH Council Europe.

The UK even lags behind Turkey, which has just entered the rankings in 18th place.

"Fibre to the home is becoming a truly international phenomenon, and in the second half of 2010 Turkey became the 18th country to join the FTTH European Ranking,” said FTTH Council Europe president Chris Holden.

“Emerging markets are very dynamic and often enter the rankings in high positions, above the more mature markets of northern and western Europe. It is becoming increasingly obvious that major economies like Germany, Spain and the UK need to speed up or risk getting left behind,” explained Holden.

The top five European countries in the FTTH Council Europe ratings are Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, and Slovaki.

Figures released by the FTTH Council Europe gives the UK 56,500 actual subscribers to FTTH, FTTB (fibre-to-the-building) and FTTN (fibre-to-the-node).

The figures come from the FTTH Council Europe’s primary research and estimates from telecoms, internet and media market analysis and consulting firm IDATE.

The UK government’s plans for a next-generation optical fibre network rollout aim to deliver 100Mbit/s broadband services to 90 per cent of the population by 2017.

The FTTH Council Europe’s mission is to accelerate FTTH adoption.