Charting the global FTTH push

Last week’s release of the new fiber-to-the-home global ranking gave everyone something to crow about. The Asia-Pacific region continues to dominate the world in FTTH deployment, but the U.S. was among the top three nations in terms of annual growth and Europe cracked the 1 million FTTH line mark in late November, making 2007 the best year yet for FTTH.

Globally, three more nations joined the ranks of those with greater than 1% penetration of FTTH.

What makes the U.S. stand out in the Top 10, however, is that, compared to global leaders South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Taiwan, our government has done very little to encourage the deployment of FTTH. Some would argue, with the current discussion about Net neutrality, the government may even be leaning in the other direction.

The massive investment that is FTTH will always favor nations with dense populations. South Korea, with more than 30% penetration and Japan with more than 20%, have actually deployed fiber to the high-rise more than to the home.

That the U.S. is on the map at all right now is due primarily to the dedication of one large telco, Verizon, and its single-minded focus on fiber. Initially, Verizon’s multibillion-dollar investment in its FiOS project came under attack from Wall Street and others as being to costly and ambitious. Those folks have gradually come around.

Now, however, there are some different issues to consider. While Verizon is aggressively pushing out fiber, the company is being accused, with some justification, of neglecting its copper-fed customers and DSL lines. There is also growing concern among Verizon competitors that the company will be de-commissioning more copper loops, just as those lines may become more valuable for use in delivering Ethernet services to areas not served by fiber.

In other areas of the world where the regulatory scheme is more firmly slanted toward competition – such as in Europe – or where the focus is on insuring economic development through a national commitment to FTTH deployment as in South Korea and Japan, the way forward somehow looks a little clearer.

More than likely, the U.S. will never challenge the rest of the world in FTTH. The country’s wide-open spaces and its dependence on the oft-chaotic impact of free market forces will likely see to that.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.