Market research firm Vertical Systems Group reports that business fiber penetration by had risen to 27.7% in the U.S. and 18.4% in Europe by the end of last year. This compares to 22.9% of U.S. sites and 15.1% of sites in Europe at the end of 2009.
Vertical Systems Group says that new fiber deployments in 2010 were much higher for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) than the enterprise segment in both regions of the world. Nevertheless, the majority of SMB locations do not have accessibility to direct fiber, whereas most enterprise locations are fiber-ready now, the firm asserts.
For this reason among others, Vertical Systems Group believes fiber expansion is a priority for network operators throughout the world, regardless of whether they are incumbents, competitive providers, or cable multiple systems operators (MSOs). Bandwidth scalability, operational simplicity and ease of provisioning are proven advantages of fiber-based service deployment.
"Investments in fiber deployment during the past year were spurred by demand for higher speed Ethernet services to support domestic and multinational enterprise networks. Rollouts of residential fiber also extended to many adjacent commercial sites, which particularly benefited small and medium size business locations," said Rosemary Cochran, principal at Vertical Systems Group. "New low latency offerings are another driver for recently lit fiber. These services focus on ultra-high performance connections for financial, content delivery and other applications."
Visit Vertical Systems Group