Recently, the FTTH Asia Pacific Conference was held and a new market panorama was released:

FTTH/B users reached 428 million, and FTTH family coverage exceeded 550 million. Singapore, China and South Korea are among the best in terms of total penetration. In the Asia Pacific market, China, Japan and South Korea dominate the FTTH family coverage. In terms of the annual growth rate of FTTH household coverage, Thailand and the Philippines ranked behind China with 35% and 28%.

FTTH

The FTTH Asia Pacific Council study examined the deployment of FTTH/B and other fiber architectures in 21 countries in the region. Overall, the current cable-up rate in these countries reached 77.6%, an increase of 10.1 percentage points from the previous year. Compared to 2014, FTTH/B users in the Asia Pacific region quadrupled and household coverage increased by 1.7 times.  As of the end of December 2018, the number of FTTH/B households in the 21 countries was close to 550 million, and the FTTH/B network covered 61.5% of the households in the region.

China still holds a leading position, accounting for 74% of FTTH/B household coverage in the Asia Pacific region. In terms of household coverage, the highest annual growth rates were in Thailand (35%), the Philippines (28%), Sri Lanka (25%), Kazakhstan (24.9%) and Indonesia (24.6%). In terms of years of user growth, the largest increases were in the Philippines (168.6%), Bangladesh (149.6%), Indonesia (59.5%), Thailand (37%) and New Zealand (30.2%).

PON is still the preferred connectivity technology in the Asia Pacific region, and FTTH GPON remains the standard for fiber optic networks in the Asia Pacific region. Compared to other regions, the proportion of MDUs (multi-dwelling units) is high due to high population density. In addition, LTE is becoming more mature throughout the region, with Korea, Japan and some urban countries taking the lead, while China plays a key role. LTE is also popular in some less advanced markets due to increased competition, falling prices, and various drivers of the younger generation of digital users.

According to the report, by 2023, the number of households covered by the FTTH network in the Asia-Pacific region will reach 649 million, while the number of FTTH users will grow to 576 million.

Venkatesan Babu, President of FTTH Council Asia Pacific, said: “Public and private cooperation projects and national broadband plans are driving the growth of the FTTH market throughout the Asia Pacific region. The development of optical and copper and the development of 5G will be the key factor to promote fiber deployment and promote public and private investment. At this stage, fiber deployment in many countries is booming, and more and more consumers are now aware of the advantages of fiber. However, there is still a long way to go to benefit every citizen and industry from the all-fiber network.”