Cable Media - March 2018 20_CABLE MEDIA 2018 | Page 3
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