Study says FTTH growing in popularity

Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband technology is becoming increasingly popular with consumers, according to Point Topic and the Broadband Forum.

The organisations revealed take-up of the ultra-fast broadband service is rising and predicted this trend will continue as availability becomes more widespread.

However, despite this expected growth in FTTH popularity, Point Topic claimed the fastest growing market segment over the next five years will be hybrid fibre optic broadband access solutions (FTTx) such as fibre-to-the-cabinet.

FTTH and FTTX saw their combined share of the market increase in the final quarter of 2011 to 16.7 per cent, up from 16 per cent in the previous three-month period.

These technologies are taking customers from cable broadband services, which saw their share fall to 19.4 per cent at the end of last year.

Despite the growing popularity of these fibre broadband products, EU figures show that only 6.5 per cent of connections in member states offer speeds of at least 30Mbps.