|
Point Topic: Fibre broadband for 4m by 2013
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:29102008
London -- There could be over four million British homes and businesses
on high-speed fibre broadband within five years. New forecasts by Point
Topic, the broadband analysts, suggest that optical fibre will be in
use for about 20% of the 22 million broadband lines expected in the UK
by late 2013.
The cable TV network is expected to stand up well against this
challenge, holding onto 23% of the broadband market, because it is
already going some way towards providing much higher speeds. But the
proportion using basic DSL, the telephone line technology which is the
mainstay of today's broadband, will have dropped from over 78% today to
only 57%.
Most of the fibre connections will actually involve fibre only as far
as the local telephone concentrator, so called FTTC for
fibre-to-the-cabinet. The last few hundred yards will still be on
high-speed types of DSL over copper telephone lines. This will provide
the majority of users with downstream data at 20 megabits per second or
more. Combined with new technologies in the core network, users will be
able to get much more reliable, high bandwidth, high quality services
than they can enjoy today.
With the increasing political and business pressure to make a national
commitment to fibre, the prospects for a major step towards high-speed
next-generation access look much more realistic than they did even a
few months ago.
"This is probably the first moment when it has been possible to make a
plausible forecast for fibre in the UK, based on some real plans and
activity," says Tim Johnson, Chief Analyst at Point Topic. BT has
announced a plan 'still provisional' to roll-out fibre to 10 million
homes by 2012. "It'll probably take a bit longer than that but there
are lot of other players coming into the market too," Johnson points
out. "So we estimate there will be over 4.4 million fibre lines by the
end of 2013."
As BT starts its fibre trials, and operators in Bournemouth, South
Yorkshire, East London and other locations are either rolling out or
trialling variations on fibre services, 2009 will see the UK take its
first steps into commercial fibre. Point Topic's projections suggest
that over 1 million homes will be within reach of fibre by the end of
2010, increasing to well over 11 million 3 years later.
"There's a lot of controversy about whether and why people are actually
going to want such high speeds," Tim Johnson admits. "I think they
will, because they will be attracted by the offer of one single
converged service, not lots of separate ones.
"People will be able to mix video telephony, TV, audio, online games
and virtual worlds, all high quality and high resolution, into the
total experience they want at that moment," he says. "In fact it's what
today's teenagers are trying to do right now and in a few more years
the technology will catch up with them."
About Point Topic
http://www.point-topic.com
Point Topic is an analyst company focusing entirely on broadband. Point
Topic's international services have a global reputation for providing
the most up-to-date and authoritative user statistics, supplier
profiles and applications reports on DSL, FTTx, cable and other
broadband services worldwide.
CONTACT: Oliver Johnson, Point Topic
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3301 3303
e-mail: oliver@point-topic.com
((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information
provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to
info@m2.com)).
Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
TMCnet LOGIN
Webinars
