Gigabit internet deployments surge 38% since May 2017

The volume of gigabit internet deployments has increased by 38 percent since May 2017, according to a report.
Gigabit internet is available to 301 million people across 49 countries, representing 4.2 percent of the global population, , according to VIAVI Solutions.

The number of people with access to gigabit LTE has surged to 74 million, based on large-scale deployments across a number of countries, including the United States, South Korea and China.

These deployments have turned gigabit LTE into the second most widely available form of gigabit internet, after fiber.
Fiber has increased its global share of gigabit deployments to 90.4 percent, however this includes a large volume of micro scale deployments, predominantly in the United States, where populations as small as 300 people are being served with gigabit internet.

The number of hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) deployments each quarter is also now tracking closely with fiber rollouts, whereas fiber deployments outpaced HFC up until 2016.
Gigabit access is available to over 64 million people in the United States – followed by 46.9 million in South Korea, 30.1 million in Spain, 20.7 million in China and 15.7 million in Canada.

Singapore has the greatest gigabit coverage, with gigabit internet available to 95 percent of its population. Singapore is followed by South Korea with 93 percent, Moldova with 90 percent, Qatar with 78 percent and Spain and Portugal tying at 65 percent.

Since the beginning of 2017, gigabit internet has been introduced in nine countries for the first time. The new gigabit countries are Australia, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Malta, Monaco, Oman and Russia.