wiredInUSA - May 2013
22
A recent study by RVA LLC for the Fiber
to the Home Council Americas indicates
that small and medium-sized carriers in
North America have seen an average
annual operational expenditure (opex)
savings of 20.4 percent. The study
included input from over 350 fiber optic
network service providers across North
America.
"This latest survey shows not only the
continued build-out of high-bandwidth
fiber to the home networks in North
America, but also provides one reason
why hundreds of small andmedium-sized
telcos have been upgrading to fiber it
saves them real money in the long run,"
said Heather Burnett Gold, the FTTH
Council's president.
RVA and the council report that, at
the end of March 2013, the number of
North American homes with access to
services from FTTH networks had grown
17.6 percent, to 22.7 million, since the
same time last year. North America’s
FTTH subscriber count has increased
to 9.7 million. Verizon and Canada’s
Bell Aliant are the two largest FTTH
players, but the council has identified
almost 600 small and medium-sized
telephone companies and nearly 100
municipalities using FTTH to some extent.
"Whileit isclear fromour surveythatmany
prospective FTTH providers continue to
face funding difficulties and regulatory
uncertainty, many are still finding ways
to upgrade to all-fiber because doing
so reduces their maintenance costs
and strengthens their opportunities to
expand their subscriber base and offer
customers more services," said Michael
Render, president of RVA.
FTTH drives opex savings