The Fiber Development Index (FDI) tracks and benchmarks fiber development across 88 countries. Fiber investment is vital to the quality delivery of all data services and, therefore, merits thorough contextual analysis. Unlike other fiber benchmarks that largely track household coverage and/or penetration, the FDI includes a wider set of fiber investment metrics, including:
In addition to the fiber investment metrics, the FDI, based on Omdia’s analysis of Ookla Speedtest data, goes on to quantify the overall broadband quality of experience improvements driven by that investment, namely:
Fiber investment is an essential metric for government institutions, network operators, and other stakeholders such as media companies to track. As a broadband-access technology, optical fiber provides an optimized, highly sustainable, and future-proof quality service. This superior level of quality is essential for the development of future digital services and applications across all verticals, including (but not limited to) entertainment, education, home working, corporate services, smart city, and health. With increased efficiency stimulating greater innovation, high-speed broadband has been proven to drive not just consumer satisfaction but national economic indicators, with additional GDP growth of 0.25% to 1.5% for every 10% increase in household broadband penetration and a further 0.3% increase for every doubling of speed. Only by maximizing investment in next-generation access can countries optimize their growth potential, and fiber-optic technology is key to that investment, whether this is in the backhaul or access network.
Singapore again leads the 2022 FDI, with maximum scores in seven of the nine metrics. It is closely followed by South Korea, China, the UAE, Qatar, and Japan, which complete the current Cluster 1 territories. Within the five chasing territories, China is currently the fastest developing and is the only territory in Cluster 1 to have increased its ranking. All territories in the leading cluster benefit from strong national broadband plans with ambitious targets around ultra-high-speed services, often backed by generous government grants or subsidies.
In the past, several otherwise highly developed broadband territories that rank lower in the fiber index—such as the US, Australia, and the UK—tended to suffer from less clear or ambitious national plans, providing weaker incentives for operators to invest. To some extent, this was often linked to less favorable geographical and demographic conditions that made government initiatives expensive and, therefore, likely to come up against significant political objections. However, due in some part to the COVID-19 crisis demonstrating just how important broadband networks are, governments around the world are now strengthening their broadband targets and increasing their focus and investments in fiber-based infrastructure.
This white paper has been sponsored by Huawei, with all analysis and conclusions arrived at independently by Omdia.
– Facilitating deployment through municipality approvals, using existing resources (government buildings, streetlights, ducts etc.,) and sharing infrastructure/facilities. – Introducing and enabling flexibility in partnership arrangements, such as allowing agreements between players; co-financing; collaborative models; public-private partnerships; and innovative partnerships. – Providing financial support through investment, incentives, and subsidies (e.g., universal service funds). – Implementing regulatory flexibility, including removal of outdated or nonessential regulations. – Improving access to telecoms facilities and physical infrastructure; improving procedures for rights of way and accessing public infrastructure, as well as broadband mapping. – Setting coverage/minimum speed targets through a national broadband plan or universal service obligation (USO).
This report benchmarks fiber development across 88 territories, including fiber coverage, household/business/mobile cell site fiber penetration, advanced WDM investment, and broadband median download and upload speeds, latency, and jitter.
The data is part of Omdia's 5G & Broadband Pricing and Strategy Intelligence Service, providing global and in-depth coverage across tariff innovation, bundling, and broadband monetization. Key trends tracked include 5G consumer pricing models, next generation access, go-to-market strategy, and new generation fixed bundles. Interested to learn more? Contact us today.