FTTH now being sold to 10M US homes

Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is now being marketed to more than 10 million North American homes, according to the latest report from RVA Market Research & Consulting. And FTTH networks pass nearly 12 million homes, or nearly 10% of all the homes in North America.

Nearly 3 million homes are connected to fiber, and 770,500 of those (or 26%) were added in the last six months, according to RVA.

Bell companies (mainly Verizon Communications) account for 2,079,000 FTTH subscribers (or 72% of the total), while a mix of 593 other providers collectively claim the other 833,500, RVA said. Non-Bell incumbents own 14% of all FTTH customers. CLECs own nearly 5%, municipalities own 4%, developers and integrators own less than 4% and cable companies own nearly 1%.

The most fiber-rich areas of the US are those within the territory of Verizon or third-tier telcos, where a third of all households are located and 5.8% of them are connected to fiber. In areas served by AT&T, Qwest or tier-two telcos—where two-thirds of US homes are found—only 0.6% of homes have fiber.

The take rate for FTTH services is climbing steadily from its low point of 18.4% in 2005 to 28.8% today, RVA said. But the take rate among non-Bell companies is much higher—having hovered around 52% for the past two years.

More than 8 million homes are now able to order television service over fiber, a 36% jump in the last six months, RVA said. And more than 1.6 million homes receive video over fiber, 56% more than in September.

More than 17,000 homes are now able to order 100 Mb/s Internet service, up from about 12,000 a year ago.

RVA’s data has drawn scrutiny in the past from other industry analysts who are skeptical of the numbers published in these regular reports. But Michael Render, RVA’s president, stands by his data.