p22-27 Broadband JulAug09 v4 28/7/09 14:48 Page 27
Digital TV Europe Technology > Broadband access
July/August 2009
while ‘coax’ suggests something out-of-date. Virgin Media has set the high-speed stan-
“It’s a way to deal with FTTH competition,” dard in the UK with its 50Mbps launch.
says Anderson. “RFoG is a very attractive solu-
tion because it allows them to continue to use services will show very high concurrency levels
DOCSIS-based delivery systems, back office, unlike things seen before.” This will force
consumer premises equipment and so on and operators to segment their networks further.
still deliver an FTTH solution without deliver- Weldon is also unconvinced by arguments for
ing PON or active Ethernet.” RFoG as a stepping stone to all-fibre networks.
Vendors argue that there are also economic “In some ways it’s the worst of all worlds,” he
benefits to deploying fibre rather than coax – says. “You have all the capex but none of the
especially in reducing opex. There are, says service advantages [of FTTH]. RFoG is not
Anderson, huge savings to be made in reduced worth doing because you might as well deploy
maintenance costs and reduced power con- a genuine PON in greenfield sites. RFoG will
sumption of fibre compared with HFC net- be a technology whose time has come and
works. RFoG can therefore be seen as part of a gone before it’s really available.”
broader toolkit of technologies that will enable Both cable and telecom operators could also eration access beyond 50%,” says Young. “So
cable operators to stay ahead of the telcos in the face challenges in their backbone networks. you will see DSL used for a long time – that
battle for broadband supremacy. “Backhaul networks are also a challenge,” says will increase the digital divide unless there are
Other technologists are more sceptical. Young. But in the backbone at least, networks other initiatives.” With telcos delivering broad-
Alcatel Lucent’s Weldon argues that the grow- will increasingly resemble each other. But the band services over a mix of DSL, VDSL2 and
ing popularity of symmetrical applications, likelihood is that the broadband industry, so various flavours of FTTH, cable deploying all-
and demand for more and more unicast video, long divided neatly into cable and DSL fibre networks in new areas, and operators of
could put cable in general at a disadvantage. “I providers, will see operators using multiple all sorts looking for the most cost-effective way
think the thing that will impact the MSOs is access infrastructures in the future. “Looking to bridge the final few hundred metres to the
that users will want more and more dedicated at housing densities in western countries, it’s home, access networks are likely to be many
bandwidth,” he says. “Many of the popular difficult to make a business case for next-gen- and varied for some time to come. ●
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