ABI says telecoms firms face dilemma between FTTH and DSL

Telecoms firms are facing a tough choice between fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and DSL solutions as they attempt to meet demand for faster broadband, according to ABI Research.

While FTTH offers ten times the bandwidth of DSL, the cost of deployment is far higher. As such, many providers are still reliant on copper-based DSL, which delivered broadband to more than 367 million customers across the world in 2011.

Adarsh Krishnan, senior analyst of TV and video at ABI, said telecoms operators have been forced to consider whether large-scale FTTH deployments are worthwhile given the tough economic climate and the lack of "innovative internet video services".

Sam Rosen, the organisation's practice director of TV and video, added: "Strong government initiatives to develop fibre infrastructure have in most cases been a necessary prerequisite to fund FTTH or fibre-to-the-building deployments."

Last month, BT's group strategy director Sean Williams argued that universal FTTH is unnecessary, as copper-based solutions have sufficient capacity to meet the needs of most customers in the medium to long term, ZDNet reported.