Members of the FTTH Council Europe are active in every segment of the fibre to the home (FTTH) value chain. The Deployment and Operations (D&O) Committee is the place where technology experts come together to discuss, debate and educate the broader telecom ecosystem and help industry stakeholders understand how to deploy high quality full-fibre networks, addressing the large variety of challenges they face throughout Europe.

From design and planning, to optimal technology selection, roll out of operations, testing and maintenance, our key publication, the FTTH Handbook, brings together state-of-the-art information and recommendations to help every FTTH professional in the industry. Its 9th edition was unveiled on 15th September 2021 during the FTTH Virtual Conference 2021; it is already available for members of the FTTH Council Europe on a complementary basis and can be purchased by the general public here.

5G is fibre’s best friend! The D&O Committee has undertaken two valuable pieces of research to evaluate the potential benefits that are brought about through converged planning of FTTH and 5G backhaul networks.  We presented the results of these studies in a recent webinar, you can access the replay here.

More recently, the Committee has produced a white paper which details the reasons underpinning our position in favour of full-fibre compared to alternative broadband technologies. 

 

 

European FTTH/B Market Panorama 2026

According to the new figures, FTTH/B networks now pass approximately 295 million homes across the EU39, representing around 79% household coverage. This marks an increase of roughly 23 million additional premises passed in the past year, confirming that fibre deployment continues to expand across Europe, although the pace of rollout is gradually moderating as several markets approach advanced stages of coverage.

At the same time, fibre adoption continues to accelerate. The number of FTTH/B subscribers across the EU39 reached around 160 million, reflecting more than 13% year‑on‑year growth. The average takeup rate also increased, reaching approximately 54%, an improvement of slightly more than two percentage points compared to the previous year. This indicates steady progress in converting network availability into active connections, although a significant activation gap remains between infrastructure deployment and subscriber uptake.

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