With 341 FTTH service providers, USA leads Japan in Fiber-to-the-Home growth rate

According to a new study jointly released by the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the number of homes hooked up directly to fiber has nearly doubled during the past year in USA.
The study, says that nearly 8 million homes now are passed by fiber, up from 4 million a year ago. Of those, 1.3 million are connected to the fiber, better than double the 671,000 that were connected in March 2006. Verizon's FiOS remains the leader of the U.S. FTTH business, accounting for nearly all of the 899,500 homes connected to fiber by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). According to study, there are 341 other U.S. FTTH providers, each with an average of 1,249 connections. In fact, small rural telephone companies are actually leading the way in terms of penetration - with 3 percent of their combined customer base now connected via FTTH.
The study however did not discuss the issues surrounding the speed of Verizon's FTTH rollout that, by many estimates, is moving more slowly than had once been planned.
The research firm also notes that, while Japan has more FTTH connections than does the United States, the growth rate in America now is higher.