Gigabit deployments increased by 70 per cent since 2015, report finds

According to a report by network test firm, Viavi, Europe is severely lagging behind in gigabit broadband connections and roll-outs. The report, titled Global Gigabit Monitor, looks at how quickly gigabit broadband connections are being made.

The study shows that there are currently 350 live gigabit broadband deployments across the planet. Another 150 are being built. However, regarding location, it found that Europe was behind North America by a significant percentage. North America was ahead with the largest share of gigabit broadband deployments at 61 per cent. This is way ahead of Europe's 24 per cent of the deployments.

When studying the gigabit deployments, the research found that 85 per cent of the deployments used optical fibre, and 11 per cent used a method of hybrid fibre coax (HFC) which is typically deployed by cable TV providers such as Virgin Media. A small minority of around three per cent used LTE-A which is an evolution of 4G LTE technology.

The report mentions how gigabit technology deployments had increased, with live deployments having increased by 70 per cent since January 2015. It also mentioned how new technology such as 5G mobile networks is also set to be rolled out with 37 carriers reportedly having plans to announce a 5G network at some point in 2017. In a statement, Viavi CTO Sameh Yamany said of the report findings: “The gigabit revolution is in full swing, and faster speeds can’t come soon enough to feed an insatiable appetite for bandwidth.

“There are more than 20 billion connected devices and that number is continually increasing. For the consumer, there are obvious benefits. For society as a whole, research also shows that widely available broadband can be a driver for growth and jobs.”

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