Making sense of trends and data

Is FTTH Dead?

Published 10.10.2016
For October 2016, LWRAS is analyzing markets related to optical technology. Fiber to the home (FTTH) is (as the phrase suggests) is a fiber optic network that extends from the transmitter to the end user's residence. FTTH was the long term goal of telecommunication providers, however, the evidence of the past decade is that this is no longer the case. Cable companies are still pushing fiber deeper into their networks, but they are not stringing fiber to homes, except in cases of new construction— so called "green fields." Cable is also taking customers from Telcos that offer DSL, but most of those customers are not FTTH.

FTTH continues to lag in adoption. Google's fiber effort won't make up the difference, except in areas that meet the program's criteria. Google won't bring fiber to any community where it would have to dig to do so. The primary cost of FTTH remains labor. It takes time and effort (and permissions) to dig trenches and lay conduit. There are parts of the world where optical fiber is occasionally buried in the ground without conduit, but the US isn't one of them. Burying naked optical fiber is terrible practice, but it does happen in less developed countries.

Google changes its mind?

However, recent events suggest that Google is altering its approach to bringing high speed internet to people. Google delayed rolling out its FTTH in Silicon Valley. Google isn't saying that it is forgoing FTTH but the company is frustrated by the red tape involved for deploying fiber. In June, Google agreed to buy Webpass, a point to point internet provider that uses radio waves to wirelessly deliver signals to homes. The expectation is that Google Fiber will provide a hybrid product. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The concept of delivering the "last mile" of internet wirelessly is not new. Years ago, before it imploded, Motorola developed technology designed to deliver internet signals to a neighborhood using radio signals. Unfortunately, as was too often the case with Motorola thus explaining its implosion, the technology was not supported and never caught on.

In other news, AT&T recently renamed its high speed internet service as AT&T Fiber, and is expanding it into 11 new markets. However, the service is not FTTH. AT&T has never seemed to have FTTH has its long term goal, much to this former customer's frustration.

Hail Mary Tech?

Fiber in Core Ejected Coax could represent a way for FTTH to become a reality. The technology replaces the Cu core of a coax cable with an optical fiber— meaning no need to dig to install the fiber. This has the potential to be huge. The coax than acts as the duct for the fiber.

The approach enables operators to upgrade from a coax infrastructure to a fiber-optic infrastructure without digging, trenching, boring, or missleing. It thereby reduces the amount of time and cost to deploy fiber, including property restoration. The cost for the approach is in the $3 to $4 per foot range, compared to conventional methods at anywhere from $8 to $150 per foot. The total cost per foot varies based on region, soil, and presence of concrete or asphalt.

The technology would eliminate the cost of digging trenches to bury new conduit, but would not eliminate the costs of the components needed to receive and transform the light into a wireless signal so that the data could communicate with with consumer devices.

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