In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal with the ambition of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people's health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind.

Digitalisation will be at the core of this ambitious program and fibre is key to align the digital and sustainability agendas. As the most sustainable telecommunication infrastructure technology, full-fibre is a prerequisite to achieving the European Green Deal and making the European Union’s economy more sustainable.

The need to work collectively towards a more sustainable society has become a strategic objective of policy makers and the vast majority of private organisations alike. With this context in mind, the sustainability Working Group of the FTTH Council Europe has been created with two key objectives:

  • Promote full fibre as the most sustainable access network technology and enabler of multiple applications which can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of our activities. Remote working and learning being the most obvious examples.
  • Support all stakeholders of the Fibre to the Home value chain in their efforts to make their respective activities more carbon neutral.

Insights from the Committee

 

 

FTTH Market Forecasts 2023-2028

The market forecasts are consistent with the previous estimates and in line with the conclusions of the FTTH/B Market Panorama. The data foresee around 211 M homes passed for FTTH/B in 2028 in EU27+UK and 308 M homes passed in the EU39 region. It is expected that the top 3 countries in terms of homes passed will be Germany (33,5 M), France (33,2 M), and United Kingdom (30,7 M).

According to the forecasts, the number of subscribers is expected to reach 137 M in EU27+UK and 196 M in EU39 region, with take-up rates experiencing steady growth in both regions.

The physical limitation of existing cable and copper networks in terms of bandwidth is pushing telecom players to deploy full fibre solutions. In addition, increased traffic demand in the region is pushing operators to update their networks to Full Fibre in order to be ready for new traffic peaks. Thanks to recently launched national programmes coupled with DAE targets for 2025 & 2030, full-fibre connectivity will be reaching new high levels in European countries.

On the technology side, the data report a significant trend whereby PON is gradually but clearly prevailing over point-to-point fibre, as a consequence of the progress of PON technologies on one side, and the strong focus on power consumption and sustainability on the other.

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