One graph which shows just how far behind SA is in getting super-fast fibre

Point Topic has released its latest global fixed-broadband numbers, which show there are now more subscribers to fibre broadband services worldwide than any other fixed-broadband technology.

In not much more than 10 years, fibre has made it to over 285 million subscribers – earning a 40% market share.

Cable’s global market share has dropped by almost 6% in the last five years, and while they have a smaller slice there’s a bigger pie.

Copper was the biggest loser, showing a decline over the last three years as more subscribers replace their DSL services with fibre-to-the-home.

The graph below shows the growth of fibre and the decline of copper-based DSL services globally.

Broadband subscribers by technology

South Africa falling behind

In South Africa, the fixed-broadband market is still dominated by Telkom’s copper-based ADSL and VDSL products.

While there are some fibre-to-the-home deployments, subscriber numbers are counted in thousands – rather than the hundreds of thousands which DSL commands.

This shows that South Africa’s fixed-broadband market is well behind global standards, where fibre-based broadband connections dominate.

The graph below shows just how far Africa is behind in fibre deployments when compared to global standards.

Broadband technology by region

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