There Is a Business Case for FTTP in (Some) Emerging Markets

• Publication date: May 2010

Executive Summary Next-generation access (NGA) is generally considered to be a market trend relevant only, or at least mostly, for developed markets. In fact, the large majority of ongoing deployments are in developed markets today. And yet, emerging market projects are starting to appear with a dynamic that could very well accelerate in the coming years. Will we see emerging market fiber to the premises (FTTP) overcome developed market FT...

Executive Summary

Next-generation access (NGA) is generally considered to be a market trend relevant only, or at least mostly, for developed markets. In fact, the large majority of ongoing deployments are in developed markets today. And yet, emerging market projects are starting to appear with a dynamic that could very well accelerate in the coming years. Will we see emerging market fiber to the premises (FTTP) overcome developed market FTTP, just like emerging market mobile overcame developed market mobile? Maybe not in the short term, but the opportunity in emerging markets certainly goes beyond localized new-build developments. This report examines the state of FTTP deployments in emerging markets, analyzes the trends and tries to plot the role of FTTP in emerging markets in the coming years.

Current deployment in emerging Asia-Pacific markets is limited, with some effective deployment in China as well as in India and Malaysia. In the Middle East and Africa, there is very little in the way of effective deployments. The only country in the region with significant FTTP availability is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is usually not considered emerging. In Eastern Europe, deployments have focused on the Baltic countries (particularly Latvia and Lithuania), Romania and Bulgaria, and there is some significant fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) presence in Russia. Yankee Group knows of no national deployment plans in any emerging market to date.

Network Equipment Industry in Asia