EoW September 2011

RVA expects annual FTTH growth in the US to decline for the next couple of years before trending upward again. On the positive side, the FTTH specialists also see improvement in Canadian and Mexican growth rates and many new players entering the US market. Other telecom news . . . ❈ Level 3 Communications (Broomfield, Colorado) has added points of presence (PoPs) in the capital cities Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Zagreb, Croatia, enabling direct access to the carrier’s global network and portfolio of IP-based communications. As noted by TeleGeography (29 th June), the new PoPs form part of a Level 3 strategy of deepening its network in Eastern Europe, which it views as a growth region for Internet traffic. With the addition of Slovenia and Croatia to the countries connected to its Tier 1 network, Level 3 now spans more than 20 European nations and offers connectivity in 50 markets. Dorothy Fabian USA Editor

with connection speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps). Of these, about one-third (170,000 households) receive FTTH service with connection speeds of at least 100 Mbps. RVA says these results are more than double the totals in the previous year’s report. The current survey, of more than 2,000 broadband subscribers, again found that overall satisfaction is higher among FTTH users than among other subscribers. Some 74% of FTTH respondents professed themselves “very satisfied” with their service (up from 71% percent a year before), compared with 54% for cable and 51% for digital subscriber line (DSL). Reporting the RVA results on digitalhome.ca , a Canadian site that reviews consumer electronics, Hugh Thompson noted (17 th June) that the largest FTTH provider in Canada is Bell Aliant, an operator in Atlantic Canada exclusive of Québec. With its FibreOP brand, Aliant expects to have made FTTH service available to over 600,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2012. According to its much more comprehensive North American Market Review and Five-Year Forecast Report (2010-2014) ,

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EuroWire – September 2011