INDUSTRY NEWS
Openreach FTTP hits 10m UK homes
helping review, triage and refer patients based on diagnostic scans and data. Openreach also says the full fibre transformation could give a £72 billion boost to the output of the UK economy in 2030, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). This is the equivalent of 294,960 new SMEs being created across the country or adding 25 new businesses in every local council in the UK. By providing increased capability for people to work from home, an estimated 431,000 new workers could enter the workforce by 2026. This will benefit older workers, parents and carers, groups that particularly benefit from remote, flexible working.
UK infrastructure provider Openreach has passed 10 million homes, businesses and public services, with the 10 millionth build in Ketton, Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The roll-out of full fibre broadband across the country is part of a £15 billion infrastructure project. Since the pandemic, the UK’s internet usage has soared, doubling in 2020 and increasing year on year with more data downloaded last year than ever before. The rise in usage is set to continue as technology becomes more sophisticated and integral to people’s daily lives, with social changes such as working from home and the boom in online learning. Openreach has also made
helping to tackle a range of social challenges, improving the lives of people across the country by bringing better technology and local services to areas which would benefit from them. For example, Openreach has already made full fibre available to over 9,000 medical facilities including GP surgeries, hospitals and research labs across the country. It says ultrafast broadband will benefit health services by improving connections with experts, remote monitoring of patients, easier access of records and faster appointments. The future applications are also exciting, such as the use of AI to achieve better health outcomes by
full fibre available to over 13,500 educational facilities such as nurseries, schools and universities, improving online learning facilities for students nationally. In addition, full fibre broadband is now available to more than three million premises in the hardest to reach, typically very rural, parts of the country, and over three million in areas identified by the Government as a priority for levelling up. Openreach has also made full fibre available to the top 25 areas identified by the Social Mobility Commission as least socially mobile, providing full fibre availability to 409,000
premises in these areas. The company says the network transformation could also play a role in
Cordova taps Pioneer for Alaskan subsea cable
Australian broadband worth US$8.3bn by 2027
voice average revenue per user (ARPU) levels. Srikanth Vaidya, telecom analyst at GlobalData, comments, “Fibre lines accounted for a majority 71.5% share of the total fixed broadband lines in 2022, which will increase to about 75.3% in 2027. This growth will be supported by the rising demand for high-speed Internet services in the country and the government’s focus on aggressive fibre network expansion nationwide under the National Broadband Network (NBN) project.” In June 2022, NBN made it possible for customers in around 160,000 premises served by FTTC in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to upgrade to FTTP, to extend the FTTN to FTTP network upgrade program to about 3.5 million premises by the year-end 2025.
The fixed communications market in Australia is expected to see steady growth with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.7% from 2022 to 2027, according to a new report from data and analytics company GlobalData. The Australia Fixed Communication Forecast Model (Q1-2023) finds that although there is expected to be a decline in fixed voice revenues, this is set to be offset by a rise in fixed broadband service revenues, which are anticipated to drive the overall fixed communications market to increase from US$8 billion in 2022 to US$8.3 billion in 2027, the company forecasts. GlobalData says this indicates that the fixed voice service revenue will decline at a CAGR of 3.4% over 2022-2027 due to the drop in the overall fixed
Cordova Telecom Cooperative, Inc., a member- owned telecommunications cooperative, has chosen Pioneer Consulting to oversee the engineering and design phase of its planned “Fibre Internet Serving Homes in Alaska” (FISH in AK) submarine cable system. The 276 km system will connect the cities of Cordova and Seward, with branching units for additional connectivity to Johnstone Point and the village of Chenega. Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
feasibility study, resulting in its successful USDA grant application. Subsequently, Pioneer has now been contracted to conduct a desktop study analysis and a detailed engineering study for the FISH system. This engineering and design phase will define the FISH system requirements and is expected to be completed by Q3 2023. Once completed, the submarine cable system will provide multi-terabit capacity between the four communities, facilitating end-user speeds with the potential of up to a gigabit to local residents and businesses, achieved through FTTH links. The FISH system will also serve as a more advanced and reliable counterpart to Cordova’s existing fibre optic cable, which is vulnerable to a single point of failure, offering more reliable broadband connection to the region.
ReConnect Program, an initiative to provide
connectivity to rural and underserved communities, the FISH project will bring high-speed broadband service to the communities which are some of Alaska’s most remote regions. In 2021, Pioneer Consulting was brought in to assist with the project’s initial
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| ISSUE 33 | Q2 2023
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