Industry news

Fibre-based broadband 'set to dominate Europe'

New research has suggested that wireline broadband services will increasingly shift to fibre-based services in Europe and other established markets.

A report from communications analyst TelecomView suggested that global wireline broadband subscriber numbers will increase from 338 million in 2007 to 534 million by 2013 but noted that most of this growth would come from emerging markets.

Despite this, Bob Larribeau, principal analyst at TelecomView, said that fibre systems would continue to improve broadband services for businesses and consumers in Europe.

He explained: "Wireline broadband services have been around for ten years and have largely fulfilled their promise.

"However, there is still plenty of air in the balloon. There is a lot of growth coming in the next six years for … fibre-based services."

Overall, the report suggested that wireline broadband services could hold an 87 percent market penetration rate by 2013.

What's more, the analysis predicted that system spending on fibre technologies would come to dominate that spent on ADSL.