3.2 million Europeans connected to optical fiber

In Europe, there were 3.2 million users of broadband connections through optical fiber at the end of the first half. The figures are from the FTTH Council, which also considered Russia in statistics, which increases the number of users of fiber connections counted to 4.5 million by June and places the growth in the use of technology at 22 percent.

The figures obtained for Portugal indicate that at the end of June there were 52,500 users of these technologies in the country, data that differ from those determined by Anacom in March of the same year, when 54,000 users of the technology were identified in the country. Even so, the country remains at the forefront of the implementation of fiber technologies, taking into account that the data analyzed by the organization highlights the 17 European countries where fiber has already reached more than one percent of households.

Fiber in europe

Globally, the FTTH Council underlines that the expressive European growth of fiber is mainly due to the explosion of broadband in the economies of Eastern Europe. At the front, when it comes to fiber implementation are countries like Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia. Sweden and Norway, traditional leaders of broadband, also ensure top places here, in the second and third position of the table. Portugal is 16th out of seventeen.

The data also shows that the expansion of fiber will continue in Europe in large steps, taking into account that 18 million houses are already prepared to receive the technology today. Adding Russia to this account, the number of homes passed increases to 26 million. The figures show a 6 percent growth in the semester under review.

At the beginning of the year, the FTTH Council presented data for 2009. At that time there were 41,500 broadband customers in Portugal with fiber connections and a total of 1.1 million homes passed.