By deploying fiber further out into their networks, NTCA member companies are able to offer their customers higher broadband speeds than ever before, a recent NTCA member survey shows.
According to NTCA’s recently released 2014 Broadband/Internet Availability Survey Report, 45% of those respondents currently deploying fiber serve at least 50% of their customers using fiber to the home (FTTH), up from 41% last year. As a result, 83% of respondents’ customers are able to receive broadband service in excess of 10 Mbps.
The overall broadband take rate for survey respondents was 70%. The most popular speed tier offered was 10.0 Mbps and above, the choice of 34% of responding companies’ customers, a dramatic increase from 8.5% last year.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents’ customers are served by FTTH, while 31% are served by copper loops, 18% by cable modem and 12% by fiber to the node (FTTN).
Seventy-four percent of survey respondents indicated that regulatory uncertainty remains a barrier to fiber deployment, second only to cost (92%).
Nearly half of all respondents—44%—offer “stand alone” DSL service. Thirty-one percent of respondents currently offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and 48% of those not currently offering VoIP plan to do so in the foreseeable future.
Seventy-three percent of respondents currently offer video, while an additional 8% plan to do so by year-end 2017. Obtaining access to reasonably-priced programming poses a challenge to 98% of survey respondents.
Twenty percent of NTCA’s member companies participated in the annual survey, which was conducted in late 2014.