The number of fiber-optic broadband Internet subscriptions in Japan reached 7 million in the third quarter, according to the latest country data. As recently mentioned, Japan leads all OECD countries in terms of total FTTH customers. Japan has nearly double that number of DSL connections -- DSL remaining the country's favorite broadband flavor, with connections available at speeds up to 47Mbps. Country-wide, there are 3.5 million cable broadband subscribers, and 10,954 fixed wireless subscribers.

Japanese incumbent NTT Group found that the popularity of FTTH connections placed its 1-Tbit/s backbone under strain, so the company recently announced plans to build a 10-Tbit/s replacement. Compare this of course to the recent observations from an AT&T Research Labs VP, who stated the company's latest upgrade - a global OC-768 (40 Gbit/s) core - is rapidly filling up, and they'd need to move to a 100-Gbit/s backbone by the end of the decade.

Noted Light Reading at the time: "NTT says it needs to step up from its current DWDM backbone, which multiplexes 10-Gbit/s signals, to a 10-Tbit/s network that can support multiple 100-Gbit/s channels because 'data traffic has been doubling every year due to the rapid spread of broadband access.'" Such is life when you're offering customers 100Mbps connectivity for $39.