Europe has passed over half of homes able to receive fibre broadband. According to the latest figures compiled by Idate for the FTTH Council Europe, 52.5 percent of homes could receive FTTH/B at the end of September 2020, up from 49.9 percent a year earlier. The network footprint expanded the most in the past year in France (+4.6 mln homes passed), Italy (+2.8 mln), Germany (+2.7 mln) and the UK (+1.7 mln).
The above figures cover 39 countries across Europe, where nearly 183 million homes have fibre access. For the EU and UK alone, penetration reached 43.8 percent in September, up from 39.4 percent a year earlier.
The report also shows fibre take-up is accelerating, with a subscriber penetration of 44.9 percent of lines in the 39 countries, compared to 43 percent in September 2019. In total there were 81.9 million FTTH/B subscribers in September 2020, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier. Annual growth was again strongest in France, with nearly 2.8 million subscribers added in the 12 months, followed by Russia with 1.7 million and Spain with 1.4 million.
The countries with the highest fibre penetration across Europe are Iceland and Belarus, with over 70 percent of households using fibre broadband. Spain and Sweden are at over 60 percent, and Norway, Lithuania and Portugal over 50 percent.
