As the rollout of fibre in France begins to plateau, the US seeks to keep pace with its peers by confirming a new target for nationwide gigabit broadband access
France sees fibre coverage growth slow
On 14 March 2024, Arcep published its Fixed Broadband and Superfast Broadband Market report detailing fibre deployment and adoption across France as of December 2023. Per Arcep’s headline figure, 38m households now have access to fibre to the home (FTTH) services, representing 86% of all households in the country. In total, 90% of households have access to superfast (i.e. 30Mbps+) broadband services, taking into account the additional 1.8m households covered by cable and VDSL2 networks. However, the rate of rollout in both urban and rural regions has slowed since 2022, with only 3.5m homes added in 2023. Similarly, growth in the adoption of FTTH and superfast broadband services has also decreased year-on-year. Superfast broadband now accounts for 75% of all subscriptions, representing only an eight point increase on 2022. The decreased rate of adoption is primarily driven by the slowed take-up of FTTH-based tariffs, which saw 100,000 fewer new subscriptions in Q4 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Even as progress has begun to plateau, it should be noted that France is still generally considered a leading market in the region, far exceeding the 56% of households passed by FTTH on average across the EU according to the EC.
US upgrades broadband speed standard, sets gigabit target
Hours after its French counterpart, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its own report on mobile and fixed broadband deployment in the US, and its progress towards associated targets for equitable access and broadband affordability. Most notably, the regulator adopted a 100/20Mbps speed standard for acceptable fixed broadband services, updating the 25/3Mbps standard set in 2015, which was decried for years as an insufficient representation of modern connectivity needs. According to FCC research, over 7% of the US population is not served by any acceptable broadband service according to the new speed standard, a figure which includes 28% of Americans living in a rural community. More than half of all American households have access to one or none service providers offering 100/20Mbps speeds, when excluding fixed wireless access (FWA) services as well. While the increased speed target paints are far less optimistic picture of broadband coverage in the US, the new standard not only better aligns FCC standards with the connectivity needs of emerging technologies but will also coordinate better with standards set in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which will fund the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) programme, as well as long-running connectivity programmes overseen by other departments. In addition to the new speed standard, the FCC also confirmed its long-term goal of delivering gigabit-capable fixed networks to the whole of the US, albeit without designating a deadline akin to Project Gigabit in the UK.
Germany marks progress in 5G adoption
On 21 March 2024, BNetzA published its report on the results of its eighth annual study of fixed and mobile speed measurements in Germany. According to research conducted between October 2022 and September 2023, 43.5% of users experienced fixed connection speeds that fully achieved or exceeded their contractually agreed maximum speeds, representing a year-on-year increase from 2022. Overall, 85.5% of consumers experienced speeds that equaled half their contractually agreed speed, a figure with greater implications for operators following the introduction of the ‘right of reduction’ via the 2022 update to the Telecommunications Act. In the mobile market, an increasing proportion of consumers experienced speeds achieving or exceeding their maximum contractual levels, although that figure remains much lower than the fixed market at 4% of all consumers. In a promising update for mobile broadband, however, BNetzA found that nearly 30% of all mobile connections measured over the course of the year were 5G connections. That figure represents a 22 percentage point increase over the past two years, improving on the 6% 5G adoption rate recorded in 2021.
