In the fourth quarter of 2021, almost 1.3 million potentially servicable connections with fiber optic technology were counted in Austria. More than 75 percent of these are FTTH connections (“Fibre to the Home”), where the fiber optics reach into the homes of end users. At the end of the year, the FTTH coverage of domestic households was 24.2 percent – an increase of 20.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. Of the approximately 950,000 FTTH connections, however, only around 190,000 are used. “This means that 24.2 percent of all Austrian households could be supplied with fiber optic technology. Unfortunately, this is not yet being used to this extent,” says RTR’s managing director Klaus M. Steinmaurer.
Steinmaurer explains why supply and demand are currently so far apart: “This is mainly due to the existing alternatives, both fixed and mobile. Especially in federal states with a strong cable TV supply and excellent mobile phone coverage, the existing fiber optic This can lead to the fact that the broadband capacities in demand appear to be low compared to what is actually possible, especially where mobile communications are used very intensively,” says Steinmaurer. He believes that users are currently not yet getting any additional would see benefits in more expensive products with higher bandwidths.”But I am convinced that this will change soon,” says the RTR managing director.
The market shares of the approximately 950,000 available FTTH connections break down as follows: A1 has a market share of 31.4 percent, followed by Salzburg AG (15 percent), Wien Energie GmbH (13.1 percent) and Energie AG Oberösterreich Telekom GmbH (4.8 percent). A1 has a market share of 36.8 percent for active FTTH connections, followed by Energie AG Oberösterreich with 15.7 percent and Wien Energie GmbH with 6.5 percent.
Source: Nachrichten
