According to MarketsandMarkets, the global fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) market is expected to grow from $9.70 billion in 2018 to $14.31 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 8.10% from 2018 to 2023. Increasing demand for higher bandwidth, the growing use of optical fiber in mobile backhaul for communication, and rising demand for triple- and quad-play services are the key factors driving the FTTx market growth, the research house says.
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) architecture is expected to hold the largest size of the FTTx market in 2018. Applications such as Internet TV, video on demand (VOD), video calling, and video conferencing are driving the need for higher bandwidth, and to cater to this need, the existing copper networks are being replaced with fiber networks under various FTTx architectures.
FTTH is also the fastest-growing architecture. As of June 2016, the number of FTTH/B subscribers was ~274 million, with the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) accounting for ~77%, followed by Europe with 15%, North America with 5%, and Latin America and the Middle East and Africa with 2% and 1%, respectively.
The FTTx market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to the increasing demand for broadband, especially in highly populated countries such as India and China, which account for about one-third of the world's population. Moreover, Asian governments are pushing for more investments in fiber broadband.
