European fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) penetration continues to rise steadily, but the gap...

European fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) penetration continues to rise steadily, but the gap between leaders and laggards is growing, FTTH Council Europe said at a press briefing at the FTTH conference in London. Russia is a clear fiber leader in the region, with 2.2 million new subscribers added in the second half of 2012, more than all of the 27 EU members combined, it said. Across the EU27, the number of subscribers grew 15 percent during that same period, adding 820,000 new subscribers and bringing the number of fiber-connected homes to 6.24 million, it said. The top five “dynamic” economies, with high subscribership growth and where new 2012 subscribers represented the highest proportion of total subscribers at end-2012, were Turkey, Ukraine, Spain, Bulgaria and Russia, it said. Lithuania remains the dominant fiber nation in terms of household penetration, with 100 percent coverage and over 31 percent of homes connected. Sweden came in second, it said. But many major western economies are still “dragging their feet,” the council said. Italy and Spain are at the bottom of the ranking, and Germany and the U.K. once again failed to qualify, it said. To be included in the FTTH ranking, a country must have more than 1 percent of households connected and more than 200,000 households.