VTI.V - China’s Fiber Optic Market to Grow FasterChina’s fiber optic market to grow faster than global average
The demand for fiber optic cables and products is growing due to the rising demand for 3G and 4G connectivity for mobile usage and high speed Internet connections at residences, offices and commercial spaces across the globe. Fiber optic cables have a distinct advantage over traditional copper cables in terms of data transfer speed, which makes them preferable to fulfill the demand for mobile connectivity and high speed Internet.
In China, the government has been pushing to implement its ‘Broadband China’ plan to universalize broadband Internet in the country and increase penetration, which was around 40% in 2012. The initiative plans to bring Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) to more than 250 million users by the end of 2015, compared to 94 million in 2012. [] The ‘Broadband China’ plan is focused on providing bundled services, which will include cable television, telecommunications and internet. This will invariably require the use of a fiber optic network since it has higher bandwidth relative to copper cable. To this end, Chinese telecom and broadband companies have been trying to increase their Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) subscribers and are working towards improving their networks. This will likely help the Chinese fiber optics market grow at a rate higher than the global average of 5.1% CAGR between 2014 and 2019.