FTTH Explosion in India: Precursor to 5G ?

After witnessing a steady erosion in wireline base of 1% - 3% per month, for many quarters in the last few years, India is finally witnessing a robust gowth in FTTH subscription rates especially in the last 3 quarters with monthly growth rates ranging from 1% - 4% (Data compiled from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India website).

This is good development, considering that India is one of the few countries globally with single digit Wireline penetration, and the explosion in data consumption has so far mostly been using 4G mobile technologies. The underlying reasons are many: explosive growth of content (OTT & user created) with incraesing share in the local language, smartphone affordability, rapid increase in digital infrastructure, but above all: a stable home broadband connection is now perceived as vital piece of infrastructure, the importance at par with other utility like electricity, gas and water, even more as a tool for enhanced productivity, income levels and lifestyle

Indian Operators have adopted innovative strategies to deploy FTTH infrastructure rapidly and cost effectively: win -win partnerships with utility operators for structured OH deployment, standardized and modular ODN templates for scale and efficiency, collaboration with smart & secure city networks, revenu share arrangements and Partner developments.

The impact of this FTTH buildup is expected to be significant; the Gigabit and low latency FTTH pipe to homes and entereprises, is also used to backhaul badndwidth hungry mobile sites for 4G and in future tens of thousands of 5G towers and small cells. Use of digital tools to proactively trouble shoot has ensured superior uptimes that is vital to end customers and applications. Finally, it is expected to rapidly bridge the digital divide and mushroom even more use cases such as tele health centres, remote manufacturing , learning.

Worls is about to become even more exciting :).