French residents and businesses continue to tune into broadband, with over 22 million connections in service as the end of June, a 260,000 increase over Q1 2011, the country's telecom regulator Arcep revealed this week.
According to the report, 21.5 million users subscribed to a DSL service, an increase of 220,000 quarter-on-quarter, while another 555,000 subscribed to Fiber to the X (FTTX)-based service.
Also on the rise during this period was Fiber to the Home (FTTH). As of the end of June, 1.21 million homes in France were in reach of a FTTH service, up 33 percent year-on-year. About 1.2 million homes were located in rural or what Arcep defines as outside "very densely populated areas."
One of the interesting facts about France's FTTH market was that 28 percent of homes that could get service could get it from either incumbent telco France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) or a competitive provider such as Free. Out of this 28 percent, 4.2 million homes could access a fiber-based service that was delivered to the home via coaxial cable.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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