Broadband Communities

MAR-APR 2015

BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.

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18 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | MARCH/APRIL 2015 INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Deployment Strategies For FTTH Networks Case studies from fber deployments around the world show a variety of strategies for succeeding with FTTH. By Albert Domingo and Miquel Oliver / Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain, and Marlies Van der Wee and Sofe Verbrugge / Ghent University – iMinds, Belgium F iber to the home has been deployed in various regions by diferent companies and public institutions. To determine which strategies lead to successful deployments, we examined the approaches taken by several FTTH networks that vary in background, location, population density, type of entity initiating the deployment and, of course, deployment strategy (or the lack thereof ). UFB IN NEW ZEALAND Te government of New Zealand started a procurement for an FTTH deployment to 75 percent of the nation's households. It chose four local fber companies (LFCs) as private partners in the Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative. Each was granted a geographic area in which to operate on a wholesale-only basis, ofering bitstream access to retail service providers (RSPs), which in turn ofer services to customers. Chorus, the former DSL incumbent, was granted about 70 percent of the total coverage area, Enable 15 percent, UltraFast Fibre 13 percent and Northpower Fibre 1.5 percent. Deployment started in 2011 and by June 2014 had passed 517,000 households, or 39 percent of targeted households. Te two largest RSPs, Telecom and Vodafone, which own more than 75 percent of the retail market, are reluctant to invest in marketing for fber services before a minimum market in terms of coverage is reached. Terefore, uptake still remains low, at 7.5 percent of homes passed as of June 2014. Te smaller LFCs (Enable, UltraFast and Northpower) can tackle this problem by using the advantage of local branding and local RSPs. Tey are subsidiaries of local utility companies and have the advantage of customers' loyalty, and the local RSPs take a personal approach in marketing to customers. Chorus, which not only deploys fber but also owns the legacy DSL network, has a harder business case as it cannot incentivize the RSPs to set up ofers on the FTTH network without cannibalizing its DSL network. REGGEFIBER IN THE NETHERLANDS Although municipalities launched the frst FTTH initiatives in the Netherlands, deployment is now mainly driven by Reggefber, a subsidiary of the private investment company Reggeborgh, founded in 2005. Originally, Reggefber was involved as an investor in municipal networks such as Glasvezelnet Amsterdam and OnsNet Nuenen. After acquiring the backbone provider Eurofber, Reggefber linked the various isolated municipal initiatives. Now, Reggefber is 60 percent owned by KPN, the DSL incumbent, and operates only the passive infrastructure. It leaves installing active equipment and ofering services

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