Seven years after the commencement of the next-generation fiber-optic (FTTH) network construction, the number of TEO LT, AB fiber-optic Internet access users has surpassed that of the DSL technology-based Internet access. The next-generation high-speed Internet provided by TEO LT, AB, the largest provider of integrated telecommunication, IT and TV services in Lithuania, is already used by more than 179 thousand customers. DSL Internet access is currently used by about 177 thousand customers.
TEO fiber-optic Internet access, which is about 35 times faster than DSL, is accessible to 94 per cent residents of multi-family apartment houses and one-tenth of residents of individual houses in Lithuania. TEO predicts that over the next 5-7 years, FTTH Internet will be used by over 300 thousand customers of the Company.
Lithuania, which has a particularly extensively developed fiber-optic network, is the leader in Europe in terms of this technology. According to the most recent data released by the FTTH Council Europe, in Lithuania fiber-optic Internet is used by over 30 percent of the country’s population. In the second place – Sweden, where about 23 per cent of the population have FTTH access, in the third place – Bulgaria with 17 percent of the country’s population. The good indicators of Lithuania are the result of intense competition among Internet service providers in the deployment of fiber-optic Internet.
The successfully developed fiber-optic Internet also determines the fact that Lithuania still remains a country with one of the world’s fastest internet connection. According to the data published by Speedtest.net in December, Lithuania, where the average data transfer rate is 41.03 Mbps, is among the top ten countries with the fastest Internet access in the world. Lithuania ranks among the top three European Union countries in terms of the Internet speed.
According to Darius Didžgalvis, Chief Technology Officer of TEO, the Company installed the first fiber-optical access connections as far back as 2006. Then fiber-optic cables were laid only up to the house and then conventional cables were used to install the further Internet connection up to each individual apartment. Since 2007, fiber-optic cables are installed up to the user’s computer. At present, the length of the cables of TEO fiber-optic network, which is used for provision of services to residents, exceeds 63 thousand kilometres.
"Currently, we focus more on individual houses, mainly in the big cities and their suburbs. The fiber-optic network provides the opportunity not only to use the ultra-fast Internet, but also to provide a wide range of high-quality services. In addition, the frequency of faults occurring in this network is two times lower than in the conventional network", - D. Didžgalvis says.
Due to the constant growth of the use of smart devices as well as the volumes of data transmitted over the Internet, high-speed Internet access is becoming an increasingly important part of households and forms an integral part of the modern way of life and meaningful leisure.
The growing data needs are best satisfied by the fiber-optic technology – it allows achieving the data transfer rate of up to 40 Gbps. The easiest way to understand this speed is to compare how long it takes to download the data to fill a standard CD (700 MB). With a fast DSL connection, this amount of data can be downloaded in 10-20 minutes. With a conventional FTTH Internet connection, it takes less than a minute. With a 40 Gbps data transfer rate, it is possible to download the data to fill 3 CDs in a few seconds.
Antanas Bubnelis, Director of Corporate Communication Unit, tel. +370 5 236 75 37
