Middle East Chapter of FTTH Council reports consistent growth for FTTH in its member countries in Middle East Asia and North African regions. The findings are summarized in a study conducted by iDATE for FTTH Council. The sixth annual conference of FTTH Council MENA region will be held in Dubai World Trade Center on November 24 and 25. iDATE is the research partner of FTTH Council. The annual conference will be held in UAE under the patronage of TRA.
United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia has shown noticeable growth for Fiber to the home technologies in MENA region. In UAE, Fiber to the home broadband technology has been promoted mainly by Etisalat. The deployment started somewhere in 2008 and has been continued till date making UAE to the top of the highest Fiber penetrated countries in the world in terms of percentage.
In Saudi Arabia, Fiber based broadband technologies are promoted by Saudi Telecom Company and Mobily. While STC is concentrating in FTTH, Mobily has been actively involved in FTTB and business enterprise solutions. Mobily is also active in providing fiber to the home broadband services in Saudi Arabia. The study also found that Saudi Arabia has strong potential to develop FTTH technology, with a current FTTH/B penetration of around 30 percent. Currently, KSA is making progress, with STC and Mobily having decided to deploy FTTH extensively around the country. In Oman, the recently announced broadband company has started its work to deploy broadband services in Oman. Fiber based broadband deployments were started in Kuwait as well, but the progress is not significant as in UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Qatar’s Ooredoo is focusing on massive deployment of fiber based broadband technologies. Qatar, where FTTH/B penetration rate is currently at over 55% percent, has also made great progress in covering most of the country’s territory, with a very fast adoption by the leading operator, Ooredoo. We have heard similar progress reports from Bahrain as well. With the rise in development of MENA region’s ICT sector, Fiber to the home broadband is leading the new generation and the way to innovation and technology. Middle East Asian countries need a future-proof infrastructure to answer the requirements of the new emerging perspective. Strategy planners in these countries are aware of the challenges in delivering 1 Gbps speeds to every household along with maintaining commercial success,he added.
In the North African countries, FTTH/B is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, there is a strong potential for this technology to develop in countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Algeria in the next 10 years to come.
The FTTH Council Middle East and North Africa is an industry organization with a mission to accelerate FTTH adoption by all broadband stakeholders through information and promotion, in order to accelerate the availability of fiber-based, ultra-high-speed access networks to consumers and businesses.