OVUM評論：FTTH/FTTB subscribers in Asia-Pacific

As will be discussed at the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific Conference in May in Shanghai, Asia Pacific leads the world with the largest number of FTTH/FTTB subscribers, along with several countries with very high household penetration rates. Asia-Pacific ended 2011 with more than 64 million FTTx subscribers. Several geographies, such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, began deployments several years ago and have achieved very high household penetration rates. China now leads the region in terms of FTTx subscriber base but with a very large household base, its household penetration rate will lag for some time. Other countries in Asia-Pacific are just at the beginning of their respective deployments, such as Malaysia and Australia. We expect to see significant growth in both of these countries over the next several years.

One cannot make generalities regarding FTTx deployments. Each country follows its own path based on numerous factors including government support and national broadband plans, regulations regarding triple-play and quad-play services, urban versus rural population, competition from cable TV, the quality of the existing copper network and so on. For example, some countries are leapfrogging over DSL and moving rapidly to fibre.  Other countries, with very high penetration rates of DSL, are evolving to fibre based on subscriber demand for advanced content services.