Direct investment in the deployment of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks in North America will grow to $4.7bn annually by 2017, or $18bn cumulatively over the next five years, according to US research firm RVA LLC.

Deployment of FTTH networks is expected to continue over the next five years despite the conclusion of the ARRA broadband stimulus programme, evolution of the FCC’s Universal Service programme to the Connect America Fund, and continuing economic difficulties.

This expansion is expected to come from a diverse group of telecom providers, ranging from small to large, while the deployment focus will shift from overbuilds to greenfield applications over the five-year forecast period, RVA says.

Perhaps even more significantly, revenues from applications and services directed specifically at high bandwidth users are expected to reach $4bn by 2017, or $9bn cumulatively over the next five years.

RVA also predicts that the number of high-bandwidth users (on 50Mbps, 100Mbps, or even 1Gbps plans) will soon grow rapidly and represent a market niche worthy of “serious attention”.