Of the 7.9 million homes in the U.S. that are passed by fiber optics, 1.34 million are now connected, which nearly doubles the number from March of last year.

As of March 2006, 671,000 homes of the 4.1 million passed with fiber were connected. A study, released in part today by RVA Market Research and sponsored by the Fiber to the Home Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association, showed that the number of homes passed grew by 1.82 million since September, while the number of homes connected grew by about 320,000.

Still, only 1.2% of households are connected with fiber. This isn’t bad considering only 53% of U.S. households are connected with broadband at all. Twenty-five percent have n Internet access and 21% still use dial-up connectivity. This leaves plenty of room for growth and makes the U.S> the fastest growing market for FTTH connectivity with a 99% growth rate. Japan’s connectivity is growing by 60% and Europe’s by 13%.

Almost one-third of households connected in the U.S., over 430,000, are connected by small rural telephone companies, medium-sized telephone service providers, cable companies, private facilities-based competitive local exchange carriers, and public entities such as municipalities and public utilities.

Mike Render of RVA Market Research said in a statement that small rural telephone companies are actually leading the way in terms of penetration of their combined customer base connected with fiber.

Tier 3 ILECs have a 2.7% penetration rate compared to the large Tier 1 carriers that have 0.9%. Tier 2 ILECs only have a 0.4 penetration rate.