In almost all the top fibre markets, the incumbent has taken the lead in rolling out nationwide fibre but in an increasing number of European countries, alternative operators have secured significant investment support to deliver promised nationwide fibre coverage in the next 4 to 6 years, said the report. These include Open Fiber in Italy, CityFibre in the UK, Swiss Open Fiber in Switzerland and Deutsche Glasfaser and inexio in Germany, the latter two targeting mostly rural and underserved suburban areas.
Take-up rates have also improved in line with the rising coverage, increasing from an average of 15 percent in 2012 to 42 percent among the researcher’s benchmark countries thanks to effective migration initiatives in countries such as Singapore, Qatar and the UAE. The other driving force increasing the take-up rate is high competitive intensity in the broadband market, a phenomenon that’s prominent in Portugal and Spain where fibre networks compete with cable and where fixed-mobile convergence rates are particularly high.
The report concludes by stressing the rising importance of open access fibre providers, which it expects to gain in significance, above all in important markets such as Italy, Germany, the UK and Saudi Arabia thanks in part to large-scale investment by non-telco entities such as energy companies and infrastructure funds.
