Fibre accounts for just 1.4% of all broadband subscriptions in Europe, compared to 45% in South Korea and 39% in Japan, says a report by the European Commission. ADSL brought a short-term boost to many European users by allowing relatively high-speed access over existing copper wires, but it is now proving to be a costly distraction.

Rather than simply replacing the old copper with high-speed fibre done with much success in Asia most of Europe has concentrated on squeezing the last drops of potential out of the aged infrastructure. The result is that the region is lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of broadband speed.

Although some European countries are more progressive than others with Sweden, Norway and Slovenia leading the pack when it comes to so-called Fibre To The Home (FTTH) more than 80% of the total number of homes using FTTH across Europe can be found in just six countries, according to recent research by the FTTH Council Europe.

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