BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.
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22 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | MARCH/APRIL 2014 INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Fiber broadband subscribers spend more time on high-bandwidth activities than DSL subscribers do. Why FTTH Customers Are Satisfed A new European survey shows that ber broadband customers are more satised with their broadband services than DSL users are. In addition, they are more ready to upgrade their broadband speeds and purchase innovative services. By Benoît Felten / Diraction Analysis B roadband customers who have fber connections are much more satisfed with their broadband solutions than are legacy DSL users, according to a survey of Swedish broadband users that Difraction Analysis conducted for the FTTH Council Europe in December 2013. Forty-fve percent of fber-to-the-home and fber-to-the-building customers declared themselves "very satisfed" with their services, compared with only 28 percent for DSL users. Satisfaction levels were particularly high among Gbps subscribers (50 percent) and FTTH/FTTB quadruple-play subscribers (73 percent). Perhaps unsurprisingly, satisfaction was lower (34 percent) among FTTH/FTTB subscribers who have higher monthly bills. Difraction Analysis conducted the study via an online survey of 400 broadband respondents, including 300 fber broadband users and 100 DSL users. SATISFACTION WITH TECHNICAL ASPECTS FTTH/FTTB users were signifcantly more satisfed than DSL users with all aspects of their broadband service. Most important, fber users were very satisfed with the aspects of the broadband product that they considered most important, and DSL users had low satisfaction levels with the aspects they considered most important. With regard to technical aspects of broadband service, FTTH/FTTB users were more satisfed on all counts – not only with download speed but with upload speeds and latency as well. Teir satisfaction seems to be related to speed; users with 100 Mbps or less were less satisfed with download speed, upload speed and latency than users with speeds higher than 100 Mbps. Fiber broadband customers in the sample did not pay signifcantly more for broadband than DSL subscribers did. Excluding mobile services, average broadband fees were roughly equivalent for the two groups. Not surprisingly, 59 percent of DSL users said they found their broadband solutions overpriced, but only 32 percent of FTTH/FTTB users thought the same. DSL users were frustrated with paying so much for what they knew to be an inferior product. DIFFERENCES IN INTERNET USE On average, FTTH/FTTB users said they used their home Internet connections 30 percent more than DSL users (5.3 hours per day compared with 4.1 hours per day). For common applications such as email, social media and Web search, fber broadband and DSL broadband users spent about the same amount of time. However, fber subscribers spent more BBC_Mar14.indd 22 3/14/14 2:45 PM