NEWS BUSINESS
ALTICE PLANS FTTH UPGRADE ACROSS ITS ENTIRE US FOOTPRINT
Cable operator Altice USA is to skip over DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades and invest in a full fibre to the home (FTTH) deployment across its network footprint, in a project that is expected to be complete within five years. The fourth largest cable company in the US following acquisitions of Suddenlink and Cablevision, Altice USA is also the first major cable provider in the country to announce a large-scale fibre deployment plan. The decision to invest in FTTH
stands in stark contrast to the strategy highlighted by Liberty Global, which believes DOCSIS 3.1 is adequate to meet consumer demand (see page 6). Altice USA is a subsidiary of Dutch
conglomerate Altice NV, which has successfully deployed FTTH in various international markets. Altice France is on track to reach 22 million fibre homes by the end of 2022, and Altice Portugal (formerly Portugal Telecom) will reach the milestone of 5.3 million fibre homes passed by the end of 2020, making Portugal the first European country entirely equipped with fibre. Taking advantage of this experience, Altice USA will deploy fibre to create a network capable of 10Gb/s broadband speeds to customers. ‘Across the globe, Altice has
invested heavily in building state-of- the-art fibre-optic networks, and we are pleased to bring our expertise stateside to drive fibre deeper into our infrastructure for the benefit of our US Optimum and Suddenlink customers,’ said Dexter Goei, Altice USA chief executive. The five-year deployment schedule
will begin in 2017. Altice expects to reach all of its Optimum footprint and most of its Suddenlink footprint during that timeframe: 4.6 million customers across 20 states. The operator will deploy equipment
that meets NG-PON2 standards and exploits proprietary technologies developed by Altice Labs (previously PT Inovação), the company’s R&D arm. In addition to delivering a superior customer experience, the new architecture will result in a more efficient and robust network with a significant reduction in energy consumption.
8 FIBRE SYSTEMS Issue 14 • Winter 2017
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www.fibre-systems.com
European Commission and EIB launch €500 million broadband fund
The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have
announced a new fund aiming to encourage investment in broadband infrastructure across remote and rural areas of Europe. The Connecting Europe Broadband Fund should be worth at least €500 million through a combination of public and private investment; the Commission’s contribution is €100 million through the Connecting Europe Facility. Günther H. Oettinger, Commissioner for
Digital Economy and Society, said the broadband fund is ‘an important development for smart and efficient funding of broadband projects, especially in underserved areas, in line with the spirit and the letter of the Investment Plan. It is a great step towards a European Gigabit Society for all.’ The fund has already gained the backing of
three national promotional banks and institutions that aim to participate in the initiative as anchor investors: KfW Bankengruppe from Germany, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti from Italy and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations from France. The fund will provide investments between €1
million and €30 million, for projects with total costs of €150 million or less. In this way, smaller companies deploying broadband infrastructure will be able to access funding that was previously unavailable to them as a result of their size and risk profile. Commenting on the announcement, EIB
President Werner Hoyer said: ‘Until today, smaller-scale broadband projects did not have easy access to funding and EU financial
instruments did not exist. Consequently, projects in less populated or rural areas, where purely private-led initiatives may not see the economic benefits of deploying broadband networks, were difficult to implement. The new fund will help bridge this market gap, and I am glad that the EU Bank is part of this joint initiative.’ The Connecting Europe Broadband Fund
plans to invest in 7 to 12 broadband projects each year from 2017 to 2021 and hopes to have invested in 20 countries by 2021. Overall, the Fund is expected to unlock additional investments between €1 billion and €1.7 billion for broadband deployment in underserved areas. The fund is expected to be open for applications from mid-2017.
Canada declares broadband is a basic service
Canada’s telecom regulator has declared that broadband internet access must be considered a basic telecommunications service for all Canadians, and has established a CAN$750 million (€533 million) fund to extend coverage in rural and remote areas. The ambitious new speed
targets set by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) aim to enable all Canadians to
participate in the digital economy. While the majority are well-served, millions still do not have access to broadband services that are comparable to those offered to most Canadians in terms of speed, capacity, quality and price, the regulator contends. The regulator would like
fixed broadband speeds of 50Mb/s download and 10Mb/s upload to be available in 90 per cent of Canadian homes and businesses by the end of 2021, and in the remaining 10 per
cent of households within 10-15 years. Only 82 per cent of Canadians had access to those speeds in 2015. With this announcement, the
CRTC is shifting its regulatory focus from wireline voice to broadband services. The organisation will be phasing out its subsidy scheme for local voice services, worth CAN$100 million in 2016, and transitioning to the new funding mechanism to support projects that meet the broadband targets.
EIB
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