FTTH
Green transition Te council believes the time to build a more sustainable society is now, and fibre is set to be the game changer when it comes to digital infrastructures. Garnier explains: “As our industry is clearly facing a point of no return in the context of sustainability, the Sustainability Commitee of the FTTH Council Europe has launched the ‘Fibre For Te Planet’ initiative, a series of successful business cases through which members of the council are brought on stage to showcase their best practices around the sustainability issue. “With the same ambition of helping the
industry adapt to this new paradigm, the FTTH Council Europe has also partnered with its sister councils from the FTTH Global Alliance in launching the ‘Sustainability in Fibre’ survey, whose main aim is to establish a common baseline over the fibre supply chain’s commitment to sustainability and the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy across all regions of the world.”
Rural rollout Although rural deployment is gaining more atention, lower density areas remain significantly less covered by fibre than larger towns and cities across Europe. Figures at September 2021 from the FTTH Council Europe’s report on FTTH/B deployment in rural areas show that only 30% of rural inhabitants could enjoy full-fibre connectivity (compared to 49% of European households in the EU27+UK region covered by FTTH/B networks). Te FTTH Council Europe thinks policymakers and the industry need to work together to address this situation and to eliminate the huge gap between rural and urban areas. In conclusion, Garnier says: “Europe is moving in
the right direction from a connectivity perspective. Countries with strong legacy copper networks or important coaxial cable presence, and which started the deployment of fibre later than others, are now delivering on their extremely ambitious deployment goals. Te superior benefits of fibre are undisputed, but a lot is still to be done before all individuals and businesses can benefit from an ultrafast connected society.”
Te growth of the independent Te FTTH Council’s Market Panorama figures also detailed that altnets constitute the largest part of FTTH/B players, with around 57% of total homes in the EU39 countries being passed by alternative ISPs and around 39% by the incumbent ISPs, with the remaining 4% being municipalities/utilities. Te latest figures from the Independent Networks Co- operative Association (INCA) demonstrated that more than 5.5 million homes and businesses in the UK connect to an independent fibre broadband network, with the total number of live connections provided by the ‘alt nets’ above a million. Compiled for INCA by Point Topic using data
Fibre Yearbook 2023
provided by independent network operators across the UK, the report, entitled Metrics for the UK independent network sector, shows that the sector doubled in size over the previous year. Tis represents 111% growth year-on-year, compared with 110% from 2019-2020 and 52% from 2018-2019. Indeed, the independent sector continues to
pull in significant sums of private funding, with investment and expenditure commitments in the UK alone predicted to reach £17.7bn by the end of 2025. When combined with the £12bn announced by BT Group, the £5bn announced by government, and £2bn planned by VM02, investment levels will exceed the previous estimates of £30bn for bringing next generation networks to every property in the UK. INCA’s Chief Executive Malcolm Corbet
said of the report’s launch: “Tis continued high level of investment, coupled with commitments from others in the private sector like BT and Virgin Media, and the money being put in by government, shows the UK is on track, for the first time in its history, to have proper broadband infrastructure competition. Independent network operators are a key piece of this connectivity jigsaw, which will offer consumers real choice and drive innovation in the broadband services they consume.”
Cause for concern Te report also details operators’ concerns, the top two of which are planning and street works delays; and the threat of overbuild from other operators through Project Gigabit procurements. In joint third place, according to the report, are delivery times for services from incumbent or other operators; the issue of geting wayleaves; and BDUK’s pause on community-led ISPs Gigabit Vouchers affecting current and future deployments. Interestingly, the wayleaves issue was slightly lower on the list than the previous year, when it was placed number one as the top
“
Independent network operators are a key piece of this connectivity jigsaw, which will offer consumers real choice and drive innovation in the broadband services they consume”
industry concern. Te report puts this down to many network operators deploying outside of urban areas and enhanced legislative measures being put into place. Te fourth largest concern, according to
INCA, is gaining access to skills and labour post- Brexit, which, Brexit aside, is an issue globally for operators and network providers. Members of the association placed UK incumbent, Openreach’s long-term FTTP pricing offer (Equinox) in fiſth place, as they say it could substantially help Openreach overbuild existing altnet networks and impact deployment plans, particularly regarding wholesale. According to the report: “Since the ‘fibre only’ incentivisation programme was launched in October 2021, Openreach signed up 42 communication providers to the scheme, underscoring industry concerns expressed to Ofcom that it could undermine competition in areas where altnets are already investing heavily.” Te last concern for altnets detailed in the
report was access to finance, although the report noted this was now at the botom of the list because of the “unprecedented amount of investment within the sector”. Likewise, said the report, the ability of altnets to engage with developers and local authorities on new build
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