Bandwidth Demand for Advanced Applications Offers Opportunities for Fibre Deployments in Europe

LONDON, July 9 /PRNewswire/ --     Across Europe, rapid broadband penetration and, more
importantly, increasingly bandwidth-hungry applications and services are
being deployed and consumed. This is creating a need for service providers to
focus on their access network strategies.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan 
(http://www.communicationsservices.frost.com), Fibre in the Last Mile in
Europe, finds that fibre-to-the-home deployments reached over 2.5 million
homes in 2006 and estimates this to reach over 14.0 million in 2012.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides
manufacturers, end users and other industry participants with an overview of
the latest analysis of the Fibre in the Last Mile in Europe, send an e-mail
to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications at
joanna.lewandowska@frost.com with your full name, company name, title,
telephone number, e-mail address, city, state and country. We will send you
the information by e-mail upon receipt of the above information.

"Video content, high bandwidth applications and convergence
are driving broadband bandwidth requirements in Europe," notes Frost &
Sullivan Research Analyst Fernando Elizalde. "Several technologies are
available to meet the delivery of bandwidth demand, of which fibre in the
local loop, and in particular fibre-to-the-home, is future-proof."

Several service providers across Europe have made commitments
to deploy fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-home networks in the next three
to five years. In addition, the availability of the gigabit passive optical
networks technology has made such deployments more economically viable.

However, digital subscriber technology (DSL), which uses
existing copper access networks to deliver broadband, is well entrenched in
Europe and lengthens the useful life of existing copper infrastructures.
Furthermore, with DSL technologies, the bandwidth requirements in the near
future can be met to a certain extent. Besides, high capital investment and
local network characteristics pose restraints to a full fibre-to-the-home
deployment across all countries.

"DSL is the preferred technology to deliver broadband and
other related services in Europe," remarks Elizalde. "Local network
conditions have been favourable to the deployment of this technology to
deliver sufficient bandwidth to cope with user and application demands."

However, with the advent of high-definition video and other
entertainment applications over broadband, this will not be the case for too
much longer. Multiple high-definition video streaming to the home and other
converged applications can easily outgrow the bandwidth capacity of DSL-based
networks. As a result, service providers will need to start looking at
deploying fibre deeper into the network, even to the home or building, in
order to be ready to meet future bandwidth requirements.

Fibre in the Last Mile in Europe is part of the Communication
Services Growth Partnership Service, which also includes research on the
carrier Ethernet market and data retention in Europe. All research included
in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends
that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market
participants. Interviews with the press are available.

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been
partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies
for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth
consulting, growth partnership services and corporate management training to
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investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that
reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of
markets, technologies, econometrics and demographics. For more information,
visit http://www.frost.com.

Fibre in the Last Mile in Europe

B996-63

Contact:

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