The number of European fiber-to-the-home subscribers has jumped 22 percent...

The number of European fiber-to-the-home subscribers has jumped 22 percent in the past six months, driven by Eastern Europe’s burgeoning broadband market, the FTTH Council Europe said. The ranking included 17 countries, including Russia, where more than 1 percent of households have fiber broadband connections, it said. Lithuania still tops the list, just ahead of Sweden and Norway, it said. New entrant Romania came in 13th, the council said. Europe, including Russia, now has nearly 4.5 million FTTH subscribers and 26 million homes passed, it said. New EU members are leading in fiber adoption because the deployment of first-generation broadband over copper networks was less extensive in many of them, creating demand for competitively priced Internet connections, said Market Intelligence Committee Chairman Jan Schindler.