Fiber-to-the-home installations will jump by 330 percent this year–from 72,100 homes passed to 315,000 homes passed–ultimately reaching between 800,000 and 1.4 million homes by 2004.

That forecast, courtesy of the FTTH Council and prepared by market research firm Render, Vanderslice & Associates, is the culmination of more than 600 interviews at various levels of the FTTH sector, including large housing developments, master-planned communities, public electric companies, and independent/competitive local exchange carriers.

Although cable operators haven’t embraced FTTH because of overall cost and because their existing networks will provide enough capacity for years to come, other providers, especially those building broadband grids in so-called “greenfield” areas, are starting to leverage the technology to serve up a variety of services and applications.

According to the study, almost all FTTH homes are offered high-speed Internet services, while nearly 75 percent get video, and about 66 percent get voice. About 60 percent of all FTTH homes are offered all three.