Western Europe tipped to lead on fibre broadband investment

Western Europe will be the world leader for investment in fibre optic broadband rollouts over the next five years, according to a new report.

The study, conducted by Analysys Mason, claimed $53.5 billion (£37 billion) will be spent on super-fast broadband deployments in central and eastern Europe, developed Asia Pacific, North America and western Europe between now and 2017.

Almost half ($25.9 billion) of this amount will come from fibre optic broadband developments in western Europe, the technology analyst firm predicted.

Rupert Wood, author of the report and lead analyst for Analysys Mason's fixed networks research programme, commented: "Those simply wanting faster-than-real-time download and upload [rates] will always be happy with more speed."

Analysys Mason went on to warn against focusing too heavily on fibre-to-the-home deployments at the expense of delivering fibre broadband to the highest possible number of end users.

Ofcom's most recent figures show that super-fast broadband is currently available to 58 per cent of homes and businesses across the UK.