OPINION ACCESS NETWORKS


Fibre versus wireless is an increasingly ridiculous fight


Comparisons between fixed and mobile broadband are missing the point, argues Pauline Rigby


released by UK mobile operator O2 and its research partner Development Economics Ltd. Te report surfaced while I was at the FTTH Conference 2017 in Marseille, the world’s largest gathering of fibre-to-the-home experts and enthusiasts. Unsurprisingly, the reception to such a statement was less than lukewarm. So I asked the fibre experts for their view. ‘Ever since fibre deployment started in the


T


early years of the 21st century, some pundits and policy makers have been asking why such infrastructure would be needed when mobile could do the job. In the last few years, as it became evident that 4G was no substitute to fibre broadband, these rants had disappeared but it looks like 5G speculation is reviving them,’ said Benoît Felten, founder and chief research officer at Diffraction Analysis. Te report’s main premise – that 5G mobile


has tremendous potential to spur economic growth – is not in dispute. Te report estimates that businesses using 5G will create an additional £10 billion (€11.54 billion) a year


he economic benefits of 5G mobile will outstrip those of fibre broadband by 2026, just six years aſter it begins roll-out, claimed a study recently


in direct and indirect economic value for the UK economy by 2026 (Similar loſty claims have been made for fixed broadband). However, there are a great many challenges in attempting to derive such a result. ‘One reason that 5G is “everything to


everyone”, is because it hasn’t yet been pinned down,’ Felten continued. ‘In order to answer as rationally as possible O2’s “findings”, we first need to answer one key question: “what is 5G?” I wish I could ask O2 the question, because the answer at this point in time is “nobody knows”. 5G has not been specified, and all that we have are lab experiments and theoretical papers. Tat doesn’t mean it won’t become a reality, but it does mean that calculating economic


@fibresystemsmag | www.fibre-systems.com


competitors in upcoming auctions, but that hardly seems related. It must also be said ‘fibre versus wireless’ is


an increasingly ridiculous stance to take in my opinion. Tough wireless technologies are continuously improving – so speeds available from advanced mobile networks are theoretically capable of matching the speeds from fibre networks – fixed and mobile networks serve quite different functions, and look set to become increasingly complementary in the future. ‘Te opposition of the two is nonsensical,’


Benoît Felten


The fixed and mobile business models are different for a reason


impact on the basis of an undefined technology seems like a feat fit for prophets rather than economists.’ It’s not clear what O2’s intentions were in


comparing the imprecise benefits of a future technology deployment to those from fibre broadband – modelled on the roll-out by Openreach in the UK (which is mostly fibre to the cabinet anyway) that already reaches 90 per cent of households. Te mobile operator called on Ofcom to limit the amount of spectrum that could be bid on by its


14 FIBRE SYSTEMS Issue 15 • Spring 2017


Felten agreed. ‘Fibre broadband – and more generally fixed broadband – today is a different use case than mobile broadband. Who watches an HD football match live on a 60-inch screen with mobile broadband? No one. Not only would the mobile network not be able to sustain such massive streaming to every house simultaneously, it would blow up everyone’s mobile data cap. Te fixed and mobile business models are different for a reason.’ Mobile operators may choose to deploy


fixed wireless services as part of their initial 5G migration strategies, but this is unlikely to challenge fixed broadband, says Felten. ‘Our analysis in a recent report entitled “Has the time for Fixed Wireless finally come?” suggests costs for effective fixed wireless deployment are nowhere near as low as many people think, and these technologies will therefore not be relevant for fibre substitution but rather fill certain market niches where fixed deployment is particularly complex.’ Framing the question as ‘either/or’ also


ignores the fact that wireless networks are only wireless at their edges – as the FTTH Council Europe pointed out in a white paper


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40