France is nearing 1 million FTTH subscribers at the end of 2014, according to the latest broadband figures from regulator Arcep. The number of FTTH connections rose 67 percent last year to 935,000. This is equal to a network penetration of 23 percent of homes passed, an increase of 4 percent points in 2014.
In the last quarter of 2014, the total number of broadband connections of 30 Mbps or more, including both FTTH and VDSL, rose by 600,000 to 3.1 million. That is an increase of 50 percent year-on-year. Some 13.3 million homes could receive more than 30 Mbps at year-end, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year. This included 4.1 million passed by FTTH, up 37 percent from 2013.
The remaining broadband base, on speeds of less than 30 Mbps, totaled 22.9 million at year-end, stable year-on-year but a drop of 290,000 in the last three months of the year. In total, the French broadband market gained 305,000 subscribers in Q4 and around 1 million in the full year, to reach 26.0 million at the end of 2014