Fibre to the home networks provide the most technologically advanced solution for broadband applications and services. We know this. Yet, in the next breath, some people say that we don't need advanced broadband networks to support the applications and services that we use today. Now, a study commissioned by the FTTH Council Europe provides evidence that, while it is possible to manage without advanced connections, FTTH users do much more with their broadband.
"For a long time as an analyst and researcher I felt we were missing a key part of the story, which is a quantitative confirmation that FTTH was the right way to go," explained Benoît Felten, CEO of consultancy firm Diffraction Analysis, which carried out the research. "This survey of FTTH/B consumers in Sweden is the first to provide that kind of evidence."
The results of the survey of 400 Swedish broadband users, carried out in December 2013, aimed to discover users' attitudes towards broadband. Sweden was selected because it is a mature FTTH market – if there is a difference then it is likely to show up there first. And it did. A full 45% of FTTH/B users declared themselves "very satisfied" with their broadband, compared to only 28% for DSL users. This is a very satisfaction high value for a survey of this type, says the analyst.
FTTH/B users were more satisfied than DSL users on all technical parameters, such as upload speed, download speed and reactivity (latency). Satisfaction levels were particularly high amongst gigabit subscribers (50%). Regardless of technology, satisfaction was much lower among users on connection speeds less than 100Mbps. Speed does matter!
The survey also investigated satisfaction with service pricing and willingness to upgrade as well as usage patterns and how they differed between FTTH/B and DSL users. The results will surprise you.