In 2009, the availability of fiber-to-the-premises in the U.S. will be more than six times what it was last year, according to a new report from research firm In-Stat.

The 1.9 million U.S. homes passed by FTTP in 2004 will become 11.8 million in 2009, In-Stat said. The company tempered the numbers with the reminder that 12 million homes are still a relatively small slice of the more than 110 million homes in the U.S.--barely more than 10%.

Verizon Communications accounted for about half of all sites passed by FTTP in 2004, In-Stat said, confirming the carrier's claims that it accomplished its goal of passing at least 1 million homes with FTTP in 2004. Having recently selected a second supplier for FTTP equipment, Verizon plans to pass 2 million more homes this year.

The number of homes actually subscribing to FTTP service are a smaller subset of those passed, of course. As of September 2004, only about 15% of homes passed by FTTP were actually connected to it, according to Render Vanderslice and Associates, and the service was only being actively marketed to less than half of the homes passed.