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

 

 

EU Fibre Market Observatory 2026

The FTTH Council Europe launches the new EU Fibre Market Observatory — a one-stop, quick-read dashboard of Europe’s full-fibre progress and outlook.

FTTH Council Europe has released the new EU Fibre Market Observatory, a compact report designed to bring together—in a single, fast-to-read view—the most relevant metrics and insights previously published across the Council’s market intelligence outputs. The goal is simple: make it easier for stakeholders to track, at a glance, the pace of FTTH/B rollout, adoption, and the forward-looking trajectory of Europe’s fibre transition, without losing the analytical depth that underpins FTTH Council Europe’s reference publications.

The European FTTH/B market has entered a new stage of development, characterised by high levels of infrastructure deployment and a growing focus on network utilisation. As of September 2025, full-fibre networks pass 295 million homes across EU39 (+23 million vs September 2024), corresponding to a 79% coverage rate. This is the result of more than a decade of sustained investment. At the same time, Europe is moving into a late-stage rollout phase: while deployment continues, the pace of coverage expansion is gradually slowing, and remaining build-outs are becoming increasingly complex and costly.

Developed within the Market Intelligence Committee (MIC)—FTTH Council Europe’s strategic research arm and “official observatory” for the sector—the Observatory consolidates key indicators on deployment, coverage, subscribers, take-up, rural connectivity, historical trends, and forecasts, offering an accessible snapshot for investors, operators, policymakers, and the broader fibre ecosystem.
 

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