Given a choice between fiber-based broadband and DSL, people tend to opt for the former. Or that seems to be the lesson one can learn from the second quarter earnings reported by Verizon yesterday. Even as its DSL-subscriber additions tanked, Verizon saw a sharp uptake in the demand for its fiber connections.
The company added 203,000 FiOS broadband customers, out of a total of 288,000 in the second quarter of 2007. At the end of the second quarter, Verizon had a total to 1.1 million FiOS customers. In a conference call with analysts CFO Doreen Toben said that about 22% of the new FiOS broadband subscribers are customers who have upgraded from Verizon’s DSL service.
Fiber-based broadband is what today’s customer really wants – and not just the Verizon customer. Globally there has been increase in the number of fiber-based broadband connections. There will be about 57 million fiber connections globally by 2010, according to UBS Research, a healthy 12% of the total broadband subscriber base of 474 million estimated for that year.
At present China leads when it comes to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections with 47% of the total market, followed by Japan (35%), and Korea (8%). US is estimated to have 3% of the global FTTH subscriber base, with Verizon accounting for little less than 1% of total worldwide FTTH connections.
I’d maim for FiOS. Too bad it doesn’t look like it’s coming to SF any time soon (please tell me if I’m wrong).
Om, your numbers don’t add up. 1.1M FiOS today. FiOS less than 1% of global FTTH today. 57M global fiber by 2010.
Maybe your last paragraph is not FTTH, but FTTP. Fiber to the building numbers are very bad (they really don’t know what’s happening inside the building). They often multiply by all the individual residents (or living units) in the apartment complex.
Very surprized to see the China returns…impressive indeed.
The US number no doubt stifled by selfish politics that won’t disappear anytime soon…a great pity…
In NJ, once FiOS is available in an area, Verizon no longer makes DSL an option for customers. DSL is mostly copper based and Verizon wants out of the copper business in the long run. FiOS is a good product, but as far as choice goes, most customers have none between FiOS and DSL!
I live in Maryland and have had Verizon FiOS for quite some time. When the fiber lines were installed, all the old DSL ones were removed.
Well it’s great to see headway in fiber deployments. With the availability of fiber…I would wonder why one would opt for copper? Unless the pricing plans are dramatically different, I would definitely opt for fiber.
With competition for your broadband dollars through the availability of cable, DSL, fiber or WiMAX in most areas, the costs should be relatively close.
The battle is who’s going to drop the dime for the fiber deployments? The carriers don’t want to spend all the money on infrastructure only to have their pipes opened up to competitors.
I can’t see anything in the immediate future that will spike US deployments of FTTH to the levels of China or Japan. With that said, I’d love to have FTTH available in my area!
Customers don’t want FIOS specifically — they just want whatever is fastest. Right now, that happens to be FIOS.
FiOS is beautiful. I love it. Can’t complain, many times faster than DSL – even beats a T1 in many aspects.
China is heavy on fiber because they have very little old infrastructure in their way.
I WANT FiOS!!! I am really sad, I live near the DC area, and my friend who lives about half a mile away from me had FiOS for 1 or 2 years, but it is not available in my area. Why? Why, must the world be so cruel??? I want my FiOS!!!