FTTMH: Fiber-to-10-million-homes

The number of North American homes connected to fiber is nearing 3 million, according to the latest data from RVA Market Research & Consulting. Fiber now passes nearly 12 million homes and is being marketed to more than 10 million.

But perhaps the steepest curve in RVA's report is the one that shows the addition of fiber-based video subscribers in the last six months. More than 1.6 million North American homes now get video service over fiber, and more than a third of them (587,000) were added since September. That gives fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) video services a 20% take rate, as video-over-FTTH is now marketed to more than 8 million homes.

The arrival of new services such as video and a greater focus on marketing are driving up overall fiber take rates, too. For instance, even as Verizon aggressively deployed fiber in 2004 and 2005, the overall industry take rate for domestic FTTH plummeted from 41% to 18%. But it has been climbing steadily ever since to 28.8% today, RVA said. Among non-Bell companies, the average FTTH take rate has been hovering around 52% for the past two years.

Led by Verizon, former Bell companies collectively own 72% of all U.S. FTTH subscribers.