On Wednesday Viavi revealed an updated version of its Gigabit Monitor, which is a visual database referencing current and planned gigabit deployments around the globe. Viavi’s analysis indicates 219 million people around the world have gigabit internet available to them, equating to roughly 3 percent of the worldwide population. There are currently 603 gigabit internet implementations, which is a jump of 72 percent since June 2016, according to the monitor.
“2016 was a turning point for gigabit connectivity, as many cities around the world reached the point whereby gigabit internet was available to most of its residents,” Viavi Solutions CTO Sameh Yamany observes. “Yet the gigabit revolution shows no signs of cooling down in 2017. As bandwidth increases, so does consumer appetite for it. Likewise new business models have been quick to take advantage of new bandwidth, as we’ve seen with streaming video and audio in the recent past – and which we believe will continue in the near future with VR, AR, and the Internet of Things.”
The United States boasts the highest number of people with access to gigabit internet (56.4 million) with a population coverage of 17 percent, according to the data. It also shows that Singapore currently has the highest proportion of citizens with gigabit availability at 95 percent. South Korea has the second highest number of citizens with gigabit internet availability (46.7 million), representing 93 percent of its population, Viavi reports.
Fiber is obviously a big part of the story here, and the monitor shows that 91 percent of gigabit offerings are based on fiber, with cellular connections accounting for 3.65 percent, HFC accounting for 5.26 percent, and WiFi making up less than 1 percent.
However, with many launches of gigabit LTE and 5G expected in the near future, it is noted that the scale of cellular gigabit connectivity is expected to change significantly. This is reflected in Viavi’s State of 5G Trials, which shows that 25 mobile operators are currently lab testing 5G, with 12 of those reporting that they have progressed to field trials.
