Mar 6, 2025
The Rise of Fiber
Fiber broadband is now by far the most common means of fixed broadband connectivity worldwide, although the picture varies from region to region.
Fiber broadband is now by far the most common means of fixed broadband connectivity worldwide, although the picture varies from region to region.
Vietnamese military-run telecom operator Viettel reports impressive uptake figures since launching its 5G mobile network in mid-October 2024. Within two weeks, the firm attracted 3 million 5G users, reaching 4 million in late December.
While 5G has been available in many Asian markets for some time, users in Vietnam were forced to wait for their first taste of the new technology.
Earlier this year, China Mobile hit one billion mobile subscriptions.
In a country of more than 1.4 billion people, this may not seem like a remarkable milestone. However, the next largest national cellco, Reliance Jio in India, has less than half of this number—around 476 million subscriptions as of mid-2024.
Let’s take a closer look at China Mobile and the other giant operators.
For our next episode of TeleGeography Explains the Internet, we look to the sky.
TeleGeography Explains the Internet is back from summer break.
We return a little older, a little wiser, and you can bet that we've done the summer reading. To that end, we're starting this season with a classic TeleGeography Explains deep dive.
The topic? U.S. telecom law!
Telecom is a regulated industry, and U.S. law holds complexities that impact what happens across the larger ecosystem. I have a lot to learn about telecom policy, so thankfully I'm joined in this explainer by Jeff Long, an attorney in private practice with broad experience in both the data center and telecom industry.
Verizon’s shock agreement to acquire ISP giant Frontier Communications in a $20 billion all-cash deal looks set to herald a new era of fixed-mobile convergence in the U.S. telecom market.
The takeover—which is expected to close in 18 months, subject to regulatory approval—follows a series of eye-catching fiber-related announcements involving chief rivals AT&T Communications and T-Mobile US.
Today, we take a look at the respective fiber strategies of the “Big Three” U.S. mobile operators.
The first commercial 5G mobile networks were launched in Europe in mid-2019. Roughly one year later, most countries’ main mass-market rollouts were already underway.
The technology continues to grow in popularity as network deployments progress. At the end of June 2024, there were an estimated 190 million 5G subscriptions across Europe, up from around 130 million a year earlier.
In European markets where 5G is available, the technology accounts for an average of 27% of all mobile subscriptions.
For National Intern Day, TeleGeography welcomes summer pricing intern Lizzie Hahn to the blog! Lizzie is one semester away from earning her BA from the George Washington University here in Washington, DC. She’s a pre-law student double-majoring in political science and international business.
We loved having her cohort in the office to assist with large, data-intensive research projects throughout the summer.
Today, Lizzie shares a touch of what she's learned about broadband markets Down Under while on the job. We'll hand it over to her.
British telecom regulator Ofcom recently published its Connected Nations report for 2023.
The latest findings indicate that 17.1 million premises—or 57% of the United Kingdom—had access to full-fiber fixed broadband as of September 2023. This is an increase of 15 percentage points—or 4.6 million premises—when compared to the same point in 2022.
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