A recently updated Cullen International Global Trends benchmark aims to assess in each of 14 jurisdictions around the world:

• the availability and take-up of full-fibre network infrastructure directly connecting premises or homes, enabling access to ultra-fast broadband services;
• government targets and policies incentivising full fibre deployments by industry; and
• the types of infrastructure used and the regulatory and voluntary arrangements for commercial deployment of full fibre in practice.

The jurisdictions covered in the benchmark are Australia, Brazil, China, the EU, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Türkiye, the UK, and the US.

Among the jurisdictions covered, full fibre is most widely available in Asia-Pacific countries. Fibre-to-the premises (FTTP) coverage and take-up are extremely high in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as in selected EU member states. In other countries, other wireline broadband access technologies remain predominant. However, in the US and in Brazil, FTTP adoption is on the rise.

Several countries covered in this global benchmark adopted specific policies aimed at fostering FTTP deployments, including subsidies to industry players or public-private partnerships.

The benchmark outlines how full-fibre networks are built and shared in practice, depending on the presence of a single or multiple national fibre networks per country.

It also covers different aspects of FTTP infrastructure regulation. In particular, it investigates for each of the 14 covered jurisdictions:

• availability of wholesale services, including regulated fibre unbundling offers, co-investment initiatives and wholesale-only networks;
• passive infrastructure used for network deployment (i.e. whether alternative operators deploy their own ducts or use ducts shared by incumbents); and
• regulatory regime applicable to in-building infrastructure, including on access obligations regarding this network segment, and obligations to pre-install fibre.

For more information and to access the benchmark, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to our Global Trends service.