Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
The decision last month by the Federal government to build the National Broadband Network using Fibre to the Home technology rather than Fibre to the Node is proving to be the right decision.
Recently several other countries have also made a similar decision to Australia.
United Arab Emirates
Etisalat, the UAE-based telecommunications services provider, will migrate 712,000 customers onto its proposed Fibre to the Home network with plans to connect the entire country by the end of 2011.
Abu Dhabi will become the first capital city in the world to be fully connected by Fibre to the Home a senior executive of Etisalat said. "With its high-speed Internet offering speeds up to 100 Mbps, this technology will boost adoption of new age internet services like IPTV, Video On Demand, and online gaming, creating future smart homes," Etisalat Vice President for Consumer Marketing told a roundtable on the opening day of Middle East Communications, or MECOM, on Monday.
The planned network by Etisalat will provide a high-speed connectivity for families and businesses through the use of optical line terminal and optical network terminals. Huawei last year announced that it had been chosen by Etisalat to build a large-scale commercial FTTH network in the UAE.
United States
Now to the United States which has the second largest FTTH deployment in the world. Officials have released an historic government plan to spend tens of billions of dollars constructing a nationwide, state-of-the-art broadband network featuring speeds 100 times faster than today's technology. Haven't heard about this yet? That's because the announcement was made last month in Australia, rather than in states and was missed by much of the press.
Susan Crawford, special assistant to the President for science, technology and innovation policy and a member of the National Economic Council, recently said she is "personally intrigued" by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's ambitious goal to build a national Fibre to the Home network.
Even with this year's US$7.2 billion cash infusion from Congress to stimulate domestic broadband investment, experts acknowledge that gaps in availability and bandwidth will remain, with pockets of the United States left with no service or antiquated technology.
"Simply put, a digital economy requires fiber, and Australia is making the determination that for that to work it will require a utility approach," Crawford said, noting that Singapore is making a similar investment and Britain and the Netherlands are exploring the concept.
"These governments understand that a wholesale network can deliver massive social and economic benefits," she said, referring to capacity that would be made available to carriers at reduced rates.
Spain
In another announcement this time in Spain, according to a market growth projection made by the country's telecom regulator, Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT), almost half of Spain's 14 million households could have fiber-to-the-home connections by 2023.
The regulator, as part of a feasibility study on next-generation networks, gave what it called a "conservative" estimate that between 43 percent and 46 percent of Spanish households in 2023 would have fiber-access broadband, most likely from a PON based access network.
Those connections would be provided by national operator Telefónica plus alternative operators, such as Orange Spain and Jazztel plc, that would be using the incumbent's fiber ducts and trenches. Telefónica is still in the early stage of fiber-access deployments, with fewer than 100,000 lines of fiber-to-the-home or fiber-to-the-building rolled out.
Phillipines
And in the Phillipines, the encumbant and government owned carrier, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), has announced it is launching within this year its “fiber to the home” (FTTH) program as part of its efforts to intensify its broadband deliver platform.
Pilot areas for FTTH include Bonifacio Global City, Forbes Park, Urdaneta Village, Ayala Alabang, Dasmarinas Village, Wack-Wack, Ayala Heights, Valle Verde and certain places covered by PLDT Subictel and PLDT Clarktel.
Lebanon
Lebanese Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil has announced that FTTH will be installed in selected areas of Beirut. The cost of the deployment, which is subject to cabinet approval, is estimated to be €11.3 million and should take 10 months to complete. At present, there are close to 100,000 DSL broadband subscribers in Lebanon. This project would bring 70Mbps FTTH services to a total of around 75,000 Internet subscribers.
Portugal
Portugal Telecom has provided more detail on its investment plans for FTTH. The €650 million development will follow guidelines prescribed by national regulator Anacom, and keeps the operator on track to meet its ambitious target of 1m FTTH subscribers by the end of 2009.
Croatia
T-Hrvatski Telekom (T-HT), a Croatian telco is facilitating mass next-generation broadband deployment for its customers. T-HT has announced an accelerated programme of broadband internet access network expansion, including upping investment in FTTH. 50,000 customers should be connected to new FTTH services by the end of the year, and the telco is set to invest more than HRK1 billion in the development of fixed line broadband services during 2009.
Recently several other countries have also made a similar decision to Australia.
United Arab Emirates
Etisalat, the UAE-based telecommunications services provider, will migrate 712,000 customers onto its proposed Fibre to the Home network with plans to connect the entire country by the end of 2011.
Abu Dhabi will become the first capital city in the world to be fully connected by Fibre to the Home a senior executive of Etisalat said. "With its high-speed Internet offering speeds up to 100 Mbps, this technology will boost adoption of new age internet services like IPTV, Video On Demand, and online gaming, creating future smart homes," Etisalat Vice President for Consumer Marketing told a roundtable on the opening day of Middle East Communications, or MECOM, on Monday.
The planned network by Etisalat will provide a high-speed connectivity for families and businesses through the use of optical line terminal and optical network terminals. Huawei last year announced that it had been chosen by Etisalat to build a large-scale commercial FTTH network in the UAE.
United States
Now to the United States which has the second largest FTTH deployment in the world. Officials have released an historic government plan to spend tens of billions of dollars constructing a nationwide, state-of-the-art broadband network featuring speeds 100 times faster than today's technology. Haven't heard about this yet? That's because the announcement was made last month in Australia, rather than in states and was missed by much of the press.
Susan Crawford, special assistant to the President for science, technology and innovation policy and a member of the National Economic Council, recently said she is "personally intrigued" by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's ambitious goal to build a national Fibre to the Home network.
Even with this year's US$7.2 billion cash infusion from Congress to stimulate domestic broadband investment, experts acknowledge that gaps in availability and bandwidth will remain, with pockets of the United States left with no service or antiquated technology.
"Simply put, a digital economy requires fiber, and Australia is making the determination that for that to work it will require a utility approach," Crawford said, noting that Singapore is making a similar investment and Britain and the Netherlands are exploring the concept.
"These governments understand that a wholesale network can deliver massive social and economic benefits," she said, referring to capacity that would be made available to carriers at reduced rates.
Spain
In another announcement this time in Spain, according to a market growth projection made by the country's telecom regulator, Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT), almost half of Spain's 14 million households could have fiber-to-the-home connections by 2023.
The regulator, as part of a feasibility study on next-generation networks, gave what it called a "conservative" estimate that between 43 percent and 46 percent of Spanish households in 2023 would have fiber-access broadband, most likely from a PON based access network.
Those connections would be provided by national operator Telefónica plus alternative operators, such as Orange Spain and Jazztel plc, that would be using the incumbent's fiber ducts and trenches. Telefónica is still in the early stage of fiber-access deployments, with fewer than 100,000 lines of fiber-to-the-home or fiber-to-the-building rolled out.
Phillipines
And in the Phillipines, the encumbant and government owned carrier, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), has announced it is launching within this year its “fiber to the home” (FTTH) program as part of its efforts to intensify its broadband deliver platform.
Pilot areas for FTTH include Bonifacio Global City, Forbes Park, Urdaneta Village, Ayala Alabang, Dasmarinas Village, Wack-Wack, Ayala Heights, Valle Verde and certain places covered by PLDT Subictel and PLDT Clarktel.
Lebanon
Lebanese Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil has announced that FTTH will be installed in selected areas of Beirut. The cost of the deployment, which is subject to cabinet approval, is estimated to be €11.3 million and should take 10 months to complete. At present, there are close to 100,000 DSL broadband subscribers in Lebanon. This project would bring 70Mbps FTTH services to a total of around 75,000 Internet subscribers.
Portugal
Portugal Telecom has provided more detail on its investment plans for FTTH. The €650 million development will follow guidelines prescribed by national regulator Anacom, and keeps the operator on track to meet its ambitious target of 1m FTTH subscribers by the end of 2009.
Croatia
T-Hrvatski Telekom (T-HT), a Croatian telco is facilitating mass next-generation broadband deployment for its customers. T-HT has announced an accelerated programme of broadband internet access network expansion, including upping investment in FTTH. 50,000 customers should be connected to new FTTH services by the end of the year, and the telco is set to invest more than HRK1 billion in the development of fixed line broadband services during 2009.
This is an interesting advert from KPN on the advantages of FTTH.
COPENHAGEN — That fiber to the home (FTTH) is broadly implemented is not news, but what services are making profits and where the future trends are is the subject of Yankee Group and FTTH Council Europe findings released in conjunction with the FTTH Council Europe Conference today.
As part of the study, Yankee Group analyzed the portfolios of 20 global next-generation access service providers and interviewed key executives in these organizations. Following up on the December 2008 Yankee Group Report "Fiber to the World: A State of the Union Report on FTTH", Yankee Group Senior Analyst Benoit Felten and Program Manager Vince Vittore chart the course for the global expansion and profitability of FTTH. Key findings include:
* Providers with legacy DSL services have found that FTTH generates ARPU of 20 percent to 30 percent higher than DSL.
* A number of FTTH operations around the world have broken even already, after only a few years of operation.
* HDTV is increasingly a key acquisition driver but requires the whole content ecosystem to shift to HD to succeed.
* The next wave of revenues will come from further integration of wireline and wireless networks as well as wider economy services such as home security and tele-education.
* Two-way video communication will be the enabler service that truly allows the bloom of partnership-driven wider economy services.
"The market is always in search of the killer app, the holy grail of future revenues that will justify network investment. Our study demonstrates that the value to the customer and therefore the revenues to the service provider are in the bundling of many and diverse services," said Felten. "Some applications (HDTV, bandwidth offerings over 50 Mbps symmetric) are 'killer' in that they drive the customer to subscribe, but once he's become a customer, it's the whole panel of services that make a profitable, satisfied and loyal customer."
Joeri Van Bogaert, president of the FTTH Council Europe adds, "Here is an answer to the persistent question of 'will anyone pay for fiber'? Consumers have, are doing so and will likely pay more in the future because of the compelling basket of services that is only possible with FTTH. The results of this definitive joint study prove that FTTH is a critical enabler of innovative applications that can deliver real-world benefits on both a social and economic level."
Source: Yankee Group
As part of the study, Yankee Group analyzed the portfolios of 20 global next-generation access service providers and interviewed key executives in these organizations. Following up on the December 2008 Yankee Group Report "Fiber to the World: A State of the Union Report on FTTH", Yankee Group Senior Analyst Benoit Felten and Program Manager Vince Vittore chart the course for the global expansion and profitability of FTTH. Key findings include:
* Providers with legacy DSL services have found that FTTH generates ARPU of 20 percent to 30 percent higher than DSL.
* A number of FTTH operations around the world have broken even already, after only a few years of operation.
* HDTV is increasingly a key acquisition driver but requires the whole content ecosystem to shift to HD to succeed.
* The next wave of revenues will come from further integration of wireline and wireless networks as well as wider economy services such as home security and tele-education.
* Two-way video communication will be the enabler service that truly allows the bloom of partnership-driven wider economy services.
"The market is always in search of the killer app, the holy grail of future revenues that will justify network investment. Our study demonstrates that the value to the customer and therefore the revenues to the service provider are in the bundling of many and diverse services," said Felten. "Some applications (HDTV, bandwidth offerings over 50 Mbps symmetric) are 'killer' in that they drive the customer to subscribe, but once he's become a customer, it's the whole panel of services that make a profitable, satisfied and loyal customer."
Joeri Van Bogaert, president of the FTTH Council Europe adds, "Here is an answer to the persistent question of 'will anyone pay for fiber'? Consumers have, are doing so and will likely pay more in the future because of the compelling basket of services that is only possible with FTTH. The results of this definitive joint study prove that FTTH is a critical enabler of innovative applications that can deliver real-world benefits on both a social and economic level."
Source: Yankee Group
The Greek government, mindful of the potential impact of high-speed, next-generation, broadband capabilities on national economies, has drawn up a €2.1 billion (A$4.1 billion) plan to rid the Southern European nation of its "broadband pauper" status.
Presenting at the annual European Fibre to the Home Council Conference, Christos Akratopoulos, a consultant at the Greek Ministry of Transport and Communication, said the government intends to pass 2 million homes during the next seven years with fibre connections in Athens, Thessaloniki, and 50 other cities and towns across Greece, including some on the many surrounding Mediterranean islands.
The Government is hoping that, with broadband services of at least 100 Mbit/s on offer, it will attract at least 650,000 end users. The government is not dictating the technology that will be used to make the final connection to homes and businesses, but stipulates an truely open access architecture that will be run by a separate entity from the companies that will sell the services and applications.
Full details of this post is sourced from: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=172134
Presenting at the annual European Fibre to the Home Council Conference, Christos Akratopoulos, a consultant at the Greek Ministry of Transport and Communication, said the government intends to pass 2 million homes during the next seven years with fibre connections in Athens, Thessaloniki, and 50 other cities and towns across Greece, including some on the many surrounding Mediterranean islands.
The Government is hoping that, with broadband services of at least 100 Mbit/s on offer, it will attract at least 650,000 end users. The government is not dictating the technology that will be used to make the final connection to homes and businesses, but stipulates an truely open access architecture that will be run by a separate entity from the companies that will sell the services and applications.
Full details of this post is sourced from: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=172134
The world’s only advanced tool for assessing the net environmental impact of FTTH networks is launched today, 11th February 2009, at the annual FTTH Council Europe conference in Copenhagen.
The Sustainable FTTH Configurator allows the potential environmental benefit of actual FTTH deployments to be calculated – real world benefits from real world networks – by placing a refined and detailed emissions model in the hands of network planners and operators.
This Configurator was created by the FTTH Council Europe in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ecobilan), and showcased its first ever public demonstrations today at the FTTH Council Europe’s annual conference in Copenhagen.
Read the full story here
Source: FTTH Council Europe
The Sustainable FTTH Configurator allows the potential environmental benefit of actual FTTH deployments to be calculated – real world benefits from real world networks – by placing a refined and detailed emissions model in the hands of network planners and operators.
This Configurator was created by the FTTH Council Europe in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ecobilan), and showcased its first ever public demonstrations today at the FTTH Council Europe’s annual conference in Copenhagen.
Read the full story here
Source: FTTH Council Europe
Study shows link between Socio-Economic prosperity and FTTH
0 comments Posted Tuesday, January 27, 2009Conclusions from first significant European comparative market study of its kind will be presented at FTTH Council Europe annual conference in Copenhagen (11th – 12th February).
The results and full report of a groundbreaking study into the socio‐economic impact of European FTTH deployments, undertaken in conjunction with analyst firm Ovum, will be unveiled by the FTTH Council Europe at its annual conference in Copenhagen next month. The study has been carried out using a wide range of metrics that determine relative ‘prosperity’ and its correlation to FTTH deployments at the local/regional level.
In summary, the study will deliver definitive results to the following questions:
‐ Which socio‐economic benefits does FTTH engender, and to what extent?
‐ How does FTTH change the way in which subscribers use telecommunications services?
‐ Does adopting FTTH increase customer satisfaction in broadband services?
“Advocates for FTTH frequently use the hypothesis that it enhances social inclusion and positively impacts the social and economic welfare of its consumers, and this study is designed to substantiate that claim once and for all,” explained Joeri Van Bogaert, President of the FTTH Council Europe. “This is one of the exciting new developments most keenly anticipated by our delegates who are looking forward to learning the results at next month’s conference.”
The study will test the presence of quality of life improvements among FTTH subscribers by using a large range of metrics (from levels of computer literacy to distributions of income/wealth), and validating these further via consumer interviews and surveys in order to provide accurate social commentary. The study will further apply detailed comparative analysis with areas not currently served by next‐generation fibre broadband services. Full details of the study’s methodology and findings will be disclosed at next month’s annual conference.
For more information about the conference speaker programme, and about the FTTH Council Europe in general, visit www.conference.ftthcouncil.eu.
The results and full report of a groundbreaking study into the socio‐economic impact of European FTTH deployments, undertaken in conjunction with analyst firm Ovum, will be unveiled by the FTTH Council Europe at its annual conference in Copenhagen next month. The study has been carried out using a wide range of metrics that determine relative ‘prosperity’ and its correlation to FTTH deployments at the local/regional level.
In summary, the study will deliver definitive results to the following questions:
‐ Which socio‐economic benefits does FTTH engender, and to what extent?
‐ How does FTTH change the way in which subscribers use telecommunications services?
‐ Does adopting FTTH increase customer satisfaction in broadband services?
“Advocates for FTTH frequently use the hypothesis that it enhances social inclusion and positively impacts the social and economic welfare of its consumers, and this study is designed to substantiate that claim once and for all,” explained Joeri Van Bogaert, President of the FTTH Council Europe. “This is one of the exciting new developments most keenly anticipated by our delegates who are looking forward to learning the results at next month’s conference.”
The study will test the presence of quality of life improvements among FTTH subscribers by using a large range of metrics (from levels of computer literacy to distributions of income/wealth), and validating these further via consumer interviews and surveys in order to provide accurate social commentary. The study will further apply detailed comparative analysis with areas not currently served by next‐generation fibre broadband services. Full details of the study’s methodology and findings will be disclosed at next month’s annual conference.
For more information about the conference speaker programme, and about the FTTH Council Europe in general, visit www.conference.ftthcouncil.eu.
According to a Lightreading article entitled European Minnow Boasts Fastest FTTH, Latvian incumbent Lattelecom is currently trialling high speed FTTH services in Riga and should be offering commercial service up to 500Mb/s later this year.
Lattelecom has apparently announced that their long-term goal was to provide 10Gb/s downlink to users. Latvian blogger Juris Kaža who maintains an excellent resource on Telecom in Latvia confirms that Lattelecom's announcements state this in clear. http://latviantelecoms.blogspot.com
Lattelecom has apparently announced that their long-term goal was to provide 10Gb/s downlink to users. Latvian blogger Juris Kaža who maintains an excellent resource on Telecom in Latvia confirms that Lattelecom's announcements state this in clear. http://latviantelecoms.blogspot.com
Sweden has the highest penetration of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections in Europe, with more than 8 percent of households hooked up to an optical access line at the end of June 2008, according to new figures from the FTTH Council Europe .
In general, the Nordic countries dominate the European FTTH landscape. The continent's most northern states - Iceland (3.9 percent), Denmark (3.1 percent), and Finland (1.7 percent), in addition to Sweden (8.3 percent) and Noorway (7.2 percent) - dominate the top end of the new chart.
This contrasts sharply with the Asia/Pacific region, where South Korea has a 37 percent FTTH penetration rate, Hong Kong boasts 27 percent, and Japan 24 percent. At the end of June, 27 million of the world's 32 million FTTH connections were to be found in Asia.
Europe, meanwhile, had just 1.37 million fiber access connections in service, though Joeri Van Bogaert, president of the FTTH Council Europe, gives the number a positive spin by noting this is up by 52 percent compared with a year earlier.
In terms of actual numbers of FTTH connections, Sweden boasts the most, with nearly 368,000 FTTH homes, followed by Italy with 292,000, Norway with 142,000, and France with 138,000.
In general, the Nordic countries dominate the European FTTH landscape. The continent's most northern states - Iceland (3.9 percent), Denmark (3.1 percent), and Finland (1.7 percent), in addition to Sweden (8.3 percent) and Noorway (7.2 percent) - dominate the top end of the new chart.
This contrasts sharply with the Asia/Pacific region, where South Korea has a 37 percent FTTH penetration rate, Hong Kong boasts 27 percent, and Japan 24 percent. At the end of June, 27 million of the world's 32 million FTTH connections were to be found in Asia.
Europe, meanwhile, had just 1.37 million fiber access connections in service, though Joeri Van Bogaert, president of the FTTH Council Europe, gives the number a positive spin by noting this is up by 52 percent compared with a year earlier.
In terms of actual numbers of FTTH connections, Sweden boasts the most, with nearly 368,000 FTTH homes, followed by Italy with 292,000, Norway with 142,000, and France with 138,000.
A new report by Tariff Consultancy Ltd. finds that FTTH (Fibre To The Home) services are becoming increasingly competitive with conventional Triple Play broadband services In Europe and are already undercutting traditional ADSL2+ services.
In a new report called FTTH Pricing in Europe 2009, Tariff Consultancy Ltd provides a unique survey of the main FTTH providers in 19 European countries – from Austria to the UK.
The pricing of more than 26 FTTH infrastructure providers are profiled across Europe. Pricing is also included of a number of service providers who offer services to the end user household over an open access FTTH infrastructure.
FTTH Pricing in Europe 2009 provides pricing examples from key European FTTH suppliers and also compares current provider pricing with the established FTTH providers in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. South Korea offers clearly the lowest cost FTTH service worldwide.
An increasing number of European FTTH providers are offering a 100MB service at 30 euro per month. The price point of 29 to 35 euro being the most frequent price point adopted for a basic 100MB broadband FTTH service, and frequently an FTTH Triple Play service in a competitive market.
"Although there remain significant differences in FTTH pricing, it is clear that where there are competing service providers in Europe FTTH rates – even at 100MB - are becoming highly competitive with ADSL services that are a tenth of the speed," says Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of Tariff Consultancy Ltd.
Out of 13 FTTH providers in Europe, more than half are providing 100MB FTTH and Triple Play services that are the same or less than the monthly rate of a lower speed ADSL2+ Triple Play service. There is also a growing threat to traditional broadband providers posed by the Cable TV operator. Cable TV operators are in the process of upgrading existing coaxial access networks using the DOCSIS 3.0 standard to cater for high speed IP traffic of up to 120MB per household.
Telecoms operators as varied as Telefonica, BT and Swisscom are considering how to deploy FTTH networks in response to the cable TV operators. But across Europe the deployment of FTTH is being made at different speeds.
"Operators such as FASTWEB in Italy see only a limited market for FTTH for the consumer as ADSL services are still becoming established," commented Sessions. "But in France a number of telecoms providers are offering FTTH services as the next stage as the DSL market reaches saturation. Increased fibre capacity is becoming a key differentiator for service providers."
The wide range of FTTH service providers in Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Finland where a number of utility and municipal providers sell fibre capacity to a large number of service providers including in some cases the incumbent telecoms provider. "Although it is certain that there will be new investments in FTTH, it is unlikely that there will be any major uplift in revenues if FTTH is provided as an access mechanism."
It is not enough to provide a pure fibre access, and operators are discovering that there is no single "killer application" that is driving FTTH deployments.
"Instead FTTH operators will find that the increased demand for capacity plus the opportunity to offer supplementary services including TV on Demand, Symmetrical Bandwidth, Music, and Storage services to boost ARPU," concludes Sessions.
It will be those FTTH providers that are most successful in selling additional services that will see a greater return on their fibre investment. But providers should be aware that as equal access networks will be the preferred model to deploy FTTH, as it is more economic to lay a single network infrastructure but offer multiple service providers through that infrastructure.
Service providers need to focus on delivering added value services over FTTH it is likely that intense price pressure will result in a commoditised access pipe service.
About FTTH Pricing in Europe 2009
The new report surveys the pricing of 26 infrastructure FTTH providers across 19 European countries. It includes examples of FTTH service provider pricing (where multiple service providers use the same open access FTTH infrastructure) and includes comparable ADSL Broadband and Cable TV high speed broadband pricing. It also includes pricing from key FTTH providers in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea where fibre deployments are more common as a benchmark.
The European countries included in the 60 page report are:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
The report costs 995 GBP's for a single user licence. Further information is available at: www.telecomspricing.com
SOURCE: Tariff Consultancy Ltd. (TCL)
In a new report called FTTH Pricing in Europe 2009, Tariff Consultancy Ltd provides a unique survey of the main FTTH providers in 19 European countries – from Austria to the UK.
The pricing of more than 26 FTTH infrastructure providers are profiled across Europe. Pricing is also included of a number of service providers who offer services to the end user household over an open access FTTH infrastructure.
FTTH Pricing in Europe 2009 provides pricing examples from key European FTTH suppliers and also compares current provider pricing with the established FTTH providers in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. South Korea offers clearly the lowest cost FTTH service worldwide.
An increasing number of European FTTH providers are offering a 100MB service at 30 euro per month. The price point of 29 to 35 euro being the most frequent price point adopted for a basic 100MB broadband FTTH service, and frequently an FTTH Triple Play service in a competitive market.
"Although there remain significant differences in FTTH pricing, it is clear that where there are competing service providers in Europe FTTH rates – even at 100MB - are becoming highly competitive with ADSL services that are a tenth of the speed," says Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of Tariff Consultancy Ltd.
Out of 13 FTTH providers in Europe, more than half are providing 100MB FTTH and Triple Play services that are the same or less than the monthly rate of a lower speed ADSL2+ Triple Play service. There is also a growing threat to traditional broadband providers posed by the Cable TV operator. Cable TV operators are in the process of upgrading existing coaxial access networks using the DOCSIS 3.0 standard to cater for high speed IP traffic of up to 120MB per household.
Telecoms operators as varied as Telefonica, BT and Swisscom are considering how to deploy FTTH networks in response to the cable TV operators. But across Europe the deployment of FTTH is being made at different speeds.
"Operators such as FASTWEB in Italy see only a limited market for FTTH for the consumer as ADSL services are still becoming established," commented Sessions. "But in France a number of telecoms providers are offering FTTH services as the next stage as the DSL market reaches saturation. Increased fibre capacity is becoming a key differentiator for service providers."
The wide range of FTTH service providers in Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Finland where a number of utility and municipal providers sell fibre capacity to a large number of service providers including in some cases the incumbent telecoms provider. "Although it is certain that there will be new investments in FTTH, it is unlikely that there will be any major uplift in revenues if FTTH is provided as an access mechanism."
It is not enough to provide a pure fibre access, and operators are discovering that there is no single "killer application" that is driving FTTH deployments.
"Instead FTTH operators will find that the increased demand for capacity plus the opportunity to offer supplementary services including TV on Demand, Symmetrical Bandwidth, Music, and Storage services to boost ARPU," concludes Sessions.
It will be those FTTH providers that are most successful in selling additional services that will see a greater return on their fibre investment. But providers should be aware that as equal access networks will be the preferred model to deploy FTTH, as it is more economic to lay a single network infrastructure but offer multiple service providers through that infrastructure.
Service providers need to focus on delivering added value services over FTTH it is likely that intense price pressure will result in a commoditised access pipe service.
About FTTH Pricing in Europe 2009
The new report surveys the pricing of 26 infrastructure FTTH providers across 19 European countries. It includes examples of FTTH service provider pricing (where multiple service providers use the same open access FTTH infrastructure) and includes comparable ADSL Broadband and Cable TV high speed broadband pricing. It also includes pricing from key FTTH providers in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea where fibre deployments are more common as a benchmark.
The European countries included in the 60 page report are:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
The report costs 995 GBP's for a single user licence. Further information is available at: www.telecomspricing.com
SOURCE: Tariff Consultancy Ltd. (TCL)
In another annoucement of large scale FTTH deployment, Portuguese alternative operator Sonaecom has launched its Clix Fibra fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) product, offering internet access at up to 100Mbps, plus 95 TV channels and unlimited domestic fixed line calls and free international calls to 16 countries for EUR64.90 a month.
Back in March this year, Sonaecom committed an investment of 240 million euros to develop a Next Generation Network that is planned to cover of over 1 million homes and approximately 25% of the Portuguese population. That is only 4% of the proposed $10b Australian NBN but covers more than 15% of the equivalent number of homes.
With this investment, Sonaecom will hold the most advanced telecommunications network in Portugal and one of the best in the world, enabling the company to lead the high-speed convergent services market, ensuring voice, data and media convergence for companies and private clients, as well as guaranteeing an offer of cutting edge services, on an international level.
“This is a natural evolution for Sonaecom, since we are the leading alternative operator in direct broadband access, with over 15% market share. Additionally, we have always been at the forefront regarding network investments and innovation, having chosen a future-proof technological option, developed in partnership with leading world suppliers”, affirms Ângelo Paupério, Sonaecom’s CEO.
Sources: Light reading, Sonaecom, Telegeography
Back in March this year, Sonaecom committed an investment of 240 million euros to develop a Next Generation Network that is planned to cover of over 1 million homes and approximately 25% of the Portuguese population. That is only 4% of the proposed $10b Australian NBN but covers more than 15% of the equivalent number of homes.
With this investment, Sonaecom will hold the most advanced telecommunications network in Portugal and one of the best in the world, enabling the company to lead the high-speed convergent services market, ensuring voice, data and media convergence for companies and private clients, as well as guaranteeing an offer of cutting edge services, on an international level.
“This is a natural evolution for Sonaecom, since we are the leading alternative operator in direct broadband access, with over 15% market share. Additionally, we have always been at the forefront regarding network investments and innovation, having chosen a future-proof technological option, developed in partnership with leading world suppliers”, affirms Ângelo Paupério, Sonaecom’s CEO.
Sources: Light reading, Sonaecom, Telegeography
Asia has Long Been the Hotbed of fiber-to-the-home technology, but that is in the process of changing. Over the last year, a number of European incumbent service providers — former PTTs including France Telecom, KPN in the Netherlands, Telefonica in Spain, Telenor in Norway, and TeliaSonera in Finland and Sweden — have announced major FTTH deployments, most driven by competitive pressures from either municipal networks or alternative service providers.
You can read the full article by Carol Wilson at TelephonyOnline.
You can read the full article by Carol Wilson at TelephonyOnline.
What a real National Broadband Network should look like
0 comments Posted Saturday, September 20, 2008Thanks to Costas Troulos - one of my fellow members of the "Fibre Ring" - he has translated an extract for us of the recently announced broadband strategy for Greece.
On September 3rd, Greek Minister of Communications, Mr. Chatzidakis announced the long awaited national strategy for the national broadband network. Following the examples of Korea, Japan and Sweden, Greece drafted a national strategy for fiber access based on governmental funding and coordination to build a nationwide fiber infrastructure to ensure fiber access to approximately 2M households or about 40% coverage of the country.
The project's main attributes as announced at this stage are:
The Greek government has thoroughly thought threw this strategy, including aspects for a definition for "open access", the technology used, the definition of speeds which compete with other major broadband countries, and clear funding guidelines. I think our government should be have a hard look at their approach, because at the moment our NBN is going to be an embarrassment when compared to what other countries are doing.
Costas has published a loosely translated version of the press release.
On September 3rd, Greek Minister of Communications, Mr. Chatzidakis announced the long awaited national strategy for the national broadband network. Following the examples of Korea, Japan and Sweden, Greece drafted a national strategy for fiber access based on governmental funding and coordination to build a nationwide fiber infrastructure to ensure fiber access to approximately 2M households or about 40% coverage of the country.
The project's main attributes as announced at this stage are:
- Creation of an Open Access network for telecommunications and digital service providers
- User connections will be at least 100Mbps
- The network will provide Dark Fiber services based on the passive infrastructure model
- Management will be granted to private partners on a PPP basis for 30 years
- Project's time of completion: 7 years
- Project wil include Athens, Thessaloniki and the 50 biggest cities of the country
- To speed up the execution, the project will be separated in 3, each part covering a distinct geographical area of the country by a different PPP
- Government will provide funding and subsidies, update the legislation and regulation framework and define technical specifications.
The Greek government has thoroughly thought threw this strategy, including aspects for a definition for "open access", the technology used, the definition of speeds which compete with other major broadband countries, and clear funding guidelines. I think our government should be have a hard look at their approach, because at the moment our NBN is going to be an embarrassment when compared to what other countries are doing.
Costas has published a loosely translated version of the press release.
The case for fibre in Europe has been revitalised during the last few months. As late as the beginning of 2007 some of Europe’s major incumbents - notably BT and France Telecom - continued to distance themselves from the need to invest in a national fibre network. Now, a coalescence of national and regional governments, regulators and operators are scrambling to put in place effective fibre-based networks. It appears that everyone is reading from the same page, but there remains the threat of a two-tier structure - with some countries adopting FttH and others a less future-proof but cheaper copper/FttC architecture. Increasingly, this hybrid network seems to be outdated and insufficient. Fortunately, for incumbents which are still in the planning stage (which involves funding the project, sounding out equipment vendors and haggling with regulators for favourable terms) the re is an opportunity to refocus their plans to a predominantly FttH effort.
The drivers for FttH are plain. Firstly, a number of smaller markets (particularly Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands) have been stimulated by economic pressure to compete with their populous neighbours. As such, these markets have benefited from astute governments and regulators prepared to allow municipal involvement in fibre roll-outs (mainly through investments and co-operation). In many cases in Sweden and The Netherlands, the incumbents have become ISPs on these networks, given that it is generally impractical to duplicate them or to compete against the advantages afforded to the first-to-market operators. Seeing this (and also prodded by the success of new entrants such as Free, Numéricable and FASTWEB), BT, Deutsche Telekom and FT have joined the bandwagon, reversing their former policies and embracing fibre on a national scale.
Secondly, there is now a universal assumption within the political and regulatory corridors that an effective broadband policy should be governed by the requirements of a country’s socio-economic welfare. This is largely an emotional factor; the ‘business case’ is ephemeral and largely unquantifiable but some northern European governments have taken the required long-term view for the benefit of national economies as well as for the more immediate results relating to e-health, e-learning, e-government and smart grids. There is, in addition, the very practical stimulus for governments to reduce their expenditure in delivering health, education and other services.
The second tier countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the UK, have also been stimulated by a desire to be seen ‘catching-up’ with Sweden, The Netherlands, even Korea and Japan. They have been attempting to do so on the cheap, hence their hybrid networks. Yet for incumbents, a national fibre infrastructure can largely be funded through the disposal of existing assets: KPN’s national fibre network is being paid for by the sale of redundant real estate, while Deutsche Telekom, faced with a 5 billion bill to cover 40% of its total customer base with VDSL/FttC, could save 1.4 billion by selling exchanges and using passive infrastructure more efficiently. BT can similarly expect to part-fund its recently announced £1.5 billion fibre investment by the sale of exchanges no longer required by its 21CN, while also focussing on areas where it co uld expect the co-operation of local councils (themselves tapping into tax-funded broadband development schemes).
The role of incumbents in Europe’s overall fibre development is crucial, given that the substantial economies of scale make widespread replication of fibre access uneconomical. Research undertaken by the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) in June 2008 showed that it is significantly more cost-effective for incumbents to roll-out fibre networks than it is for new entrant operators: compared to new entrants, incumbents can save up to 30% of their investment using their national infrastructure and ducts, and by exploiting their existing large customer base. For this reason (among others) ECTA is calling for mandatory access to fibre networks to be included in the European Framework for Communications. This would replicate the existing mandatory unbundling of copper networks. Successful network replication is limited to a few dense urban areas (such as Paris, which now supports the efforts of Free, Numéricable and FT) where fibre operators can expect to make a profit. Replicating FT’s network on a larger scale is impossible without access to sewers, infrastructure sharing and regulated access (measures which have recently been legislated for).
Given that the business case for fibre has moved to national socio-economic requirements rather than the economic returns from Internet access and services, that the costs for incumbents become less daunting when their disposed assets and inherent advantages are factored in, and that incumbents themselves (as proved by KPN) can make a profit from opening their networks to competitors, the current approach by some operators to persist in a hybrid network already appears out-of-date. A recent experience drawn from the UK speaks volumes for the push for FttH as opposed to its poorer alternatives: earlier this year Virgin Media found that customers moving from a 20Mb/s to 50Mb/s service soon filled up the extra capacity. The company has not hesitated to pursue plans to unveil a 200Mb/s service within the next few years. BT by contrast insists that its proposed 40Mb/s ADSL2/fibre net work will be sufficient for the foreseeable future. This will prove a costly mistake in the long run: having initially invested in a half-measure, BT (and read FT and Deutsche Telekom as well) in coming years will again have to catch-up with the Nordic countries, The Netherlands and elsewhere, and invest in pushing fibre one step closer to the end-user. That FttH is the end-game is self-evident; what will appear remarkable in five to ten years time is that in 2008 there was even a debate about it.
Article reprint with permission from Paul Budde Communications. Buddecom prepares various reports on this subject matter which you can purchase from: http://www.budde.com.au/buddereports
The drivers for FttH are plain. Firstly, a number of smaller markets (particularly Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands) have been stimulated by economic pressure to compete with their populous neighbours. As such, these markets have benefited from astute governments and regulators prepared to allow municipal involvement in fibre roll-outs (mainly through investments and co-operation). In many cases in Sweden and The Netherlands, the incumbents have become ISPs on these networks, given that it is generally impractical to duplicate them or to compete against the advantages afforded to the first-to-market operators. Seeing this (and also prodded by the success of new entrants such as Free, Numéricable and FASTWEB), BT, Deutsche Telekom and FT have joined the bandwagon, reversing their former policies and embracing fibre on a national scale.
Secondly, there is now a universal assumption within the political and regulatory corridors that an effective broadband policy should be governed by the requirements of a country’s socio-economic welfare. This is largely an emotional factor; the ‘business case’ is ephemeral and largely unquantifiable but some northern European governments have taken the required long-term view for the benefit of national economies as well as for the more immediate results relating to e-health, e-learning, e-government and smart grids. There is, in addition, the very practical stimulus for governments to reduce their expenditure in delivering health, education and other services.
The second tier countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the UK, have also been stimulated by a desire to be seen ‘catching-up’ with Sweden, The Netherlands, even Korea and Japan. They have been attempting to do so on the cheap, hence their hybrid networks. Yet for incumbents, a national fibre infrastructure can largely be funded through the disposal of existing assets: KPN’s national fibre network is being paid for by the sale of redundant real estate, while Deutsche Telekom, faced with a 5 billion bill to cover 40% of its total customer base with VDSL/FttC, could save 1.4 billion by selling exchanges and using passive infrastructure more efficiently. BT can similarly expect to part-fund its recently announced £1.5 billion fibre investment by the sale of exchanges no longer required by its 21CN, while also focussing on areas where it co uld expect the co-operation of local councils (themselves tapping into tax-funded broadband development schemes).
The role of incumbents in Europe’s overall fibre development is crucial, given that the substantial economies of scale make widespread replication of fibre access uneconomical. Research undertaken by the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) in June 2008 showed that it is significantly more cost-effective for incumbents to roll-out fibre networks than it is for new entrant operators: compared to new entrants, incumbents can save up to 30% of their investment using their national infrastructure and ducts, and by exploiting their existing large customer base. For this reason (among others) ECTA is calling for mandatory access to fibre networks to be included in the European Framework for Communications. This would replicate the existing mandatory unbundling of copper networks. Successful network replication is limited to a few dense urban areas (such as Paris, which now supports the efforts of Free, Numéricable and FT) where fibre operators can expect to make a profit. Replicating FT’s network on a larger scale is impossible without access to sewers, infrastructure sharing and regulated access (measures which have recently been legislated for).
Given that the business case for fibre has moved to national socio-economic requirements rather than the economic returns from Internet access and services, that the costs for incumbents become less daunting when their disposed assets and inherent advantages are factored in, and that incumbents themselves (as proved by KPN) can make a profit from opening their networks to competitors, the current approach by some operators to persist in a hybrid network already appears out-of-date. A recent experience drawn from the UK speaks volumes for the push for FttH as opposed to its poorer alternatives: earlier this year Virgin Media found that customers moving from a 20Mb/s to 50Mb/s service soon filled up the extra capacity. The company has not hesitated to pursue plans to unveil a 200Mb/s service within the next few years. BT by contrast insists that its proposed 40Mb/s ADSL2/fibre net work will be sufficient for the foreseeable future. This will prove a costly mistake in the long run: having initially invested in a half-measure, BT (and read FT and Deutsche Telekom as well) in coming years will again have to catch-up with the Nordic countries, The Netherlands and elsewhere, and invest in pushing fibre one step closer to the end-user. That FttH is the end-game is self-evident; what will appear remarkable in five to ten years time is that in 2008 there was even a debate about it.
Article reprint with permission from Paul Budde Communications. Buddecom prepares various reports on this subject matter which you can purchase from: http://www.budde.com.au/buddereports
Dutch regulator Opta (http://www.opta.nl) has released a report by Analysys Mason on the business case for unbundled access to fibre-optic networks in the Netherlands.
The consultants looked at financial scenarios for the development of a large-scale FTTH network by incumbent operator KPN and the options for alternative providers to access unbundled fibre-optic services or wholesale broadband access on the network. Opta used the report for its market analyses on broadband and leased lines.
It is an interesting review which has similarities to our current environment here in Australia; where an FTTN rollout and the potential loss of "ULL" access will result in the stranding of millions of dollars of assets that have been invested by the likes of iiNet, Internode, Adam, Amcom, Primus, Powertel and Optus.
This report follows quickly on the heals of the annoucement by KPN to build an open access FTTH network to all 400,000 homes in Amsterdam.
The report can be downloaded from the OPTA web site.
The consultants looked at financial scenarios for the development of a large-scale FTTH network by incumbent operator KPN and the options for alternative providers to access unbundled fibre-optic services or wholesale broadband access on the network. Opta used the report for its market analyses on broadband and leased lines.
It is an interesting review which has similarities to our current environment here in Australia; where an FTTN rollout and the potential loss of "ULL" access will result in the stranding of millions of dollars of assets that have been invested by the likes of iiNet, Internode, Adam, Amcom, Primus, Powertel and Optus.
This report follows quickly on the heals of the annoucement by KPN to build an open access FTTH network to all 400,000 homes in Amsterdam.
The report can be downloaded from the OPTA web site.
The blog Latvian Telecoms reports that over the next few years "the [Swedish] municipal housing authorities will be installing ... fiber to the home in some 800,000 apartments ... that will provide up to 1Gbit/s." Watch an interview with the Swedish project manager.
I would be nice if we could get something faster than [up to] 24Mbit/s offered by ADSL2+, let alone 1Gbit/s
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