The number of Italians subscribed to FTTH technology increased to over 10 percent of the fixed broadband total for the first time at the end of the first quarter of 2021, according to the latest update from regulator Agcom. Total FTTH accesses rose 3.6 percent to 2.1 million at the end of March, equivalent to 10.6 percent of fixed broadband lines, with FTTH growing 6.5 percent to 48.2 percent of the total, FWA up 1.0 percent to 8.1 percent and copper-based ADSL lines down 11.1 percent year on year to 33.1 percent.
As a result, the number of lines offering speeds of 100 Mbps and over came to 55.1 percent of the broadband total at the end of Q1, compared to just 5.6 percent in March 2017. There were a total of 19.95 million direct fixed line accesses at the end of March, up from 19.50 million a year earlier, including 18.37 million broadband lines, up from 17.68 million in March 2020.
Telecom Italia (TIM) continued as leader of the fixed broadband market with a 42.2 percent share, down 0.6 percent year on year. Vodafone inched up 0.1 percent to reach 16.4 percent of the total followed by Fastweb on 15.1 percent, flat year on year, WindTre on 13.9 percent (up 0.1%), Linkem steady on 3.7 percent, Eolo on 3.0 percent (+0.4%) and Tiscali on 2.4 percent (-0.2%).
