INSIGHT 03 | 2015

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4 | Prysmian Group Insight
The path
towards further
digitalisation has
been the subject
of an in-depth
discussion at
a
Driving the
debate on
broadband
in Europe
Moving towards FTTH at different speeds
There is large variation across the EU in
terms of current and expected roll-out of
FTTH (fibre to the home). France has 6.3%
FTTH market penetration that is expected
to reach 19.5% by the end of 2019. The
Government aims to provide coverage
to 70% of the population by 2020 and
universal coverage by 2025. Germany has
1% FTTH penetration, that should rise to
4.2% by the end of 2019. The country has
made slow progress in rolling out FTTH
with the incumbent, Deutsche Telekom,
choosing instead to focus on xDSL. The
UnitedKingdom hasjust0.2%penetration,
but is expected to reach 1.7% by the end of
2019. The country has a large number of
small, generally rural FTTH projects but not
much else. In 2012, BT announced that its
FTTx programme would reach 16 million by
2015. Italy scored 1.4% FTTH penetration,
expected to grow to 3.1%by the end of 2019.
Initially a FTTH pioneer, Italian progress
stalled afterwards. Spain has done much
better among large European countrieswith
a FTTH market penetration of 7.9%, which
is expected to grow to 27.9% by the end of
2019. The rapid expansion has been driven
by Telefonica, with other competitors now
joining, and passed 10 million homes by the
end of 2014.