wiredinUSA May 2013

A recent study by RVA LLC for the Fiber to the Home Council Americas indicates that small and medium-sized carriers in North America have seen an average annual operational expenditure (opex) savings of 20.4 percent. The study included input from over 350 fiber optic network service providers across North America. "This latest survey shows not only the continued build-out of high-bandwidth fiber to the home networks in North America, but also provides one reason why hundreds of small andmedium-sized telcos have been upgrading to fiber it saves them real money in the long run," said Heather Burnett Gold, the FTTH Council's president. RVA and the council report that, at the end of March 2013, the number of North American homes with access to FTTH drives opex savings

services from FTTH networks had grown 17.6 percent, to 22.7 million, since the same time last year. North America’s FTTH subscriber count has increased to 9.7 million. Verizon and Canada’s Bell Aliant are the two largest FTTH players, but the council has identified almost 600 small and medium-sized telephone companies and nearly 100 municipalities using FTTH to some extent. "Whileit isclear fromour surveythatmany prospective FTTH providers continue to face funding difficulties and regulatory uncertainty, many are still finding ways to upgrade to all-fiber because doing so reduces their maintenance costs and strengthens their opportunities to expand their subscriber base and offer customers more services," said Michael Render, president of RVA.

wiredInUSA - May 2013

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