RONAN KELLY MOMENTUM
FTTH deployment gathers momentum ACROSS EUROPE
say that I have never been more excited about the state of deployment than I am now. In particular, considering Portugal, Spain and France, these countries are connecting at a higher rate than we have ever seen. They are acting as a positive signpost for policy-making across Europe. The have demonstrated that brown-field FTTH on a nationwide basis, is possible, and is economically viable. The UK has announced substantial funding that can be made available for FTTH investment, similarly in Ireland, the National Broadband Plan is stimulating investment from fibre focused operators like SIRO, and Belgian operator Proximus announced a €3billion investment in FTTH at the end of 2016, which was a Christmas present that the FTTH Council Europe was delighted to learn of. EVOLUTION Where there is infrastructure-based competitiveness there is market pressure. So long as the infrastructure-based competition pushes the operators above these speed and capacity standards, there will be a need for more fibre and FTTx, whether it’s to the home or to the street or building distribution point. The other lever towards such development is investment certainty; where regulatory certainty is not present, investment will slow. We are seeing a common sense approach in the likes of countries such as France, where we see how Orange, thanks to the current regulatory regime is making massive investments and taking on a huge percentage of new FTTH deployments. In contrast we have seen problems in Eastern Europe where forced unbundling have the consequence of reducing investment, which in turn reduces competition. There is a sort of “arms race” and a revolutionary e ect of hi-resolution, 4K and 8K TV. There’s a whole raft of applications just demonstrated at the January 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, which are media-rich. Nobody is going out to the video store to rent – or buy physical content mediums any more. Also, all of the leading tablets and mobile devices currently o ering 2K resolution will be upgrading to 4K in the year ahead, just like the latest iMac did in 2016. The latest VR headsets are also touting a shift from 2K resolution to 5K. All of these changes will result in multiple screens in our homes streaming at a minimum of 4K, in the very near future. The demands that this will place on the broadband infrastructure is clear, hence it should also be clear that in order to cope, the future broadband access, whether over wireless or copper last hops, will need fibre to the premises in order to service the inevitable rise in demand.
European networks are experiencing a “perfect storm”, with mobile switching to 5G, regulators pushing “gigabit cities”, and the market pull from 4K TV and VR/AR. There is no better time to start deploying fibre, argues Ronan Kelly.
RONAN KELLY
W hat I’m hoping for at the next FTTH Conference in Marseille in February is, in one word, momentum. Each year we typically host around 3,000 attendees and my expectation is that this year we will certainly exceed that. Besides market forces, what we have supporting our aims is the endorsement of the European Commission. There is strong backing for the development of the Gigabit Society. The EC is aiming for 100MB access for all European communities and at least 1GB access for key socioeconomic drivers, like schools, hospitals, libraries, and government buildings. To support this endeavour, high-capacity networks will need the characteristics of fibre; that capability hinges on symmetry of up and down speeds and low latency, which we can only expect from a modern fibre to the premises service. FIBRE IS A NECESSITY The industry’s focus must be on ensuring that today’s network and communications investments enable a clear upgrade path towards 1 Gigabit capacity for all by 2025. To enable new infrastructure such as that, then fibre deployment is absolutely necessary because conventional copper or cable solutions, DSL and the like, will not o er enough to do the job. The emergence of 5G for mobile services is another important driver of fibre deployment; 2018-19 is when this new standard will really begin to take e ect on
operators and installers. Base stations will need to be located in close proximity to users and the backhaul must be built with f ibre. National governments and the investment community, of course, are seeking stable investment opportunities. And some of the most stable projects to invest in are fibre networks, particularly any deployed in an open fashion. The FTTH Council Europe is taking a much stronger position on this area now and we are working to drive up our membership from the investor community. NEW MEMBERS Historically, the FTTH Council Europe was predominantly a vendor organization. At that time (the Council was launched in 2004), the vendor-members were not focused on operators becoming members because at that time there were very few operators that were truly fibre-focused. Now if you look across Europe, there are many fibre-focused operators. The likes of large mobile operators Vodafone and Orange are genuinely committed to FTTH deployments. Thanks to this emergence of these forward-thinking operators, the FTTH Council Europe is actively seeking to recruit fibre-focused operator-members. This will ensure the FTTH Council Europe represents all of the key stakeholders in the value chain.
PROGRESS Personally, I have been tracking the
progress of this industry for a decade (Kelly is CTO, EMEA & APAC at Adtran) and I can
I want fibre: FTTH Conference 2016 attendees show their appreciation
Ronan Kelly, President of the FTTH Council Europe, was interviewed by Matthew Peach.
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ISSUE 8 | Q1 2017
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