Hybrid broadband offers fibre alternative for rural Europe

Many homes in rural areas of Europe still suffer from a lack of high-speed broadband despite national broadband agendas. Existing offerings are deemed too slow, and fibre rollout remains not commercially feasible in hard-to-reach areas. An alternative solution directly targeted by operators at households in these areas is fixed-mobile converged (FMC) hybrid broadband, which offers faster time to market using existing infrastructure. First launched in 2015, operator adoption of hybrid broadband was initially slow to grow, but commercial launches grew by 45% last year to reach double-digit numbers, and a further launch is expected by the UK incumbent in 2019. Here we examine the operator opportunity.