A new study from RVA, commissioned by the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council Americas, shows fiber deployments in the United States grew at a healthy rate in 2015.
Nearly three million new U.S. homes were passed with fiber this year, marking a 13 percent increase and taking the total to 26 million homes.
“Now, nearly one fifth of the world’s fiber connections are here in the United States,” said Heather Burnett Gold, President of the FTTH Council.
Of that total, 12.3 million of those homes benefitted from an FTTH connection. The FTTH Council says that now 20 percent of the world’s true FTTH connections are in the U.S.
FTTH growth is being driven by consumer experience and word of mouth, according to the study, with FTTH consumers reporting 50 percent higher satisfaction rates with fiber than with DSL or cable.
With fiber deployment growth comes progress on delivering more gigabit speeds throughout the country. According to RVA’s survey, more than half of the 1,000 FTTH providers in North America anticipate offering gigabit service within the next five years.