UK not even in European top ten for fibre connections

September 9, 2017

Although two million people in Europe are now connected via fibre broadband from their homes, new research shows that the UK is still not up to par with other countries on the continent.

The Fibre to Home Council announced new figures yesterday, that show FTTH broadband increased by about 18% over the year.

Karel Helsen, the Council president, said that this is line with the estimations that were projected to line up with the current economic situation.

Helson also stated that by 2012 about 13 million people over the 35 European countries could have fibre connections offering speeds of about 100Mbps.

Helsen continued to say that more services will be developed across broadband as the technology would allow for less delays and lower latency.

He stated that many of the new services are dependent on real time access, especially those that pertain to communications such as video calls and conference calls.

The top nations with FTTH broadband connections are Sweden, Norway and Slovenia all averaging between 8-10% fibre connections for their populations.

Yet, France, Germany, and the UK failed to make the top ten list.

Chair of the FTTH Council Europe’s marketing and Intelligence Committee, Thomas Kallstenius, stated that the top ten list shows that the smaller economies and countries within the European Union are staying at the top of the FTTH list, while larger countries are not able to advance as quickly per population growth.

The largest growth in the UK when it comes to fibre optic broadband is due to Virgin Media which upgraded all of its network speeds to 50Mbps for most of its subscribers.