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Study: Socio-economic impact of FTTH T he FTTH Council Europe has released the findings of its new study carried out by WIK on the socio-economic benefits of fibre. The study explores how fibre-based connectivity is transforming and enhancing the way we live, do business and interact. The objective was to identify more precisely the impact of fibre from the perspective of the end-users based on actual consumer experience. The study analyses the socio-economic benefits of FTTH in two countries, Sweden and The Netherlands. It uses case-studies and a representative survey of 1,018 Swedish consumers. Swedish consumers are more satisfied with fibre, non-FTTH users want fibre Responses to the survey lead to the conclusion that for the majority of FTTH users fibre is about higher speed and better value for money. • 87% of the FTTH subscribers mention high bandwidth as the primary reason for purchasing a FTTH connection. • 62% are satisfied about the higher range of services they get with FTTH • 51% are of the view that fibre provides for a better value for money. The degree of satisfaction of FTTH end- users is substantially higher than recorded for any other Internet access technology in Sweden. It reaches 83% whereas other technologies such as DSL or cable are respectively reported at 52% and 72%. It is also worth noting that 94% of non- FTTH users would consider subscribing to FTTH if it was made available in their area. FTTH has a positive impact on the economy and society The study also looked at the impact of fibre on the economy and society leading to the following conclusions: • In Europe, FTTH/B infrastructure is proven to have a positive impact on the environment with 88% less greenhouse gas emissions per Gigabit compared to other access technologies. • In France, 4.8% more start-ups were created in municipalities equipped with ultrafast broadband compared to the ones with slower access. • Fibre is playing a role in tackling the demographic challenge in Nuenen (The Netherlands), where the second case study was conducted, the development of fibre allowed the use of new services such as ‘domotica’ and home automation helping elderly citizens connected by the FTTH network in the area. • Agriculture is one of the sectors where the degree of digitisation is accelerating the use of smart farming allowing the monitoring and reporting of manure and fine dust emissions and efficiency gains in the day-to-day business. “Given that Scandinavian and Baltic countries are leading the way on FTTH/B penetration, it was particularly interesting to study the perspective of end-users in Sweden,” noted Ronan Kelly, president of the FTTH Council Europe. “The migration process (from another technology to FTTH) started in Sweden in 2007 and is already quite advanced, and the shares of subscriptions th at rely on other technologies such as DSL and cable have decreased over the same period. This transition provided a large quantity of data to analyse and the opinion of the end-users and their degree of satisfaction were therefore crucial in understanding what triggers end-users to choose fibre and how they use fibre connectivity,” he explained. “At the FTTH Council Europe, we are convinced of the benefits of fibre for citizens, businesses and the economy as a whole,” added Erzsébet Fitori, director general of the FTTH Council Europe. “FTTH is the only future-proof foundational infrastructure that will enable the new technologies and services we cannot even imagine, yet, and continuously adds value to end-users. It contributes to the protection of the environment, improvement of health and facilitates access to education and allows remote working in particular in less dense areas. We believe in a sustainable future, enabled by fibre and for this European policy-makers should foster fibre roll-out by striking the right balance between investment incentives and ensuring a competitive market.” Sweden – An FTTH success story PTS data 60% 50% 1 st FTTH Council study 40% WIK survey data 2 nd FTTH Council study additional sample 30% 20% 10% 0% 2007 2008 2009 DSL 2010 Cable modem 2011 FTTH 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Wireless access (e.g. via surf stick) Source: Data for 2007 to 2016 was taken from the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (2017); data for 2017 was collected via a representative consumer survey conducted for this study, N=803. To harmonise both data sets other Internet access technologies (e.g. satellite, dial-up, etc.) were not considered in the figure above. ADVANCED TELEVISION Cable Media 3