Abstract
Annual report on: Fibre to the home (FttH, FttC, FttP), optical
communications, optical fibre, ATM and IP developments, blown fibre, Ethernet,
Passive Optical Networks (B-PON, E-PON, G-PON), switched digital video, MPEG,
xDSL (VDSL, SDSL, ADSL), HFC, SDH/SONET, MPLS. Developments in: USA, Canada,
Europe and Asia Pacific.
Report also contains:
- Global market and industry overviews and analyses
- Trends and Developments
- Growth prediction
- Costing analyses
- Business Strategies
- Regional overviews
- Industry issues and regulatory
- Technology overviews
Executive Summary
Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) is undoubtedly the next development in
telecommunications (and broadcasting) infrastructure. Once the 1st and 2nd
generation broadband networks start to reach penetration levels of 20%, the
pressure on the national infrastructure will start to grow. Video-based
communication will be the killer applications on these networks. Access will
be a key issue and eventually through fragmentation of the incumbents and/or
regulatory reform, structural separation will take place between the basic
infrastructure and the retail activities.
During the mid 00s, the technological resilience of the copper-based network
in the wake of broadband was a setback for Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH)
deployment. However, these networks are showing that there is an enormous
appetite for broadband and these developments are leading to a much clearer
indication of the demand for optical fibre, and the business models which need
to be developed for it. Japan is leading the world and the USA is also rapidly
rolling out. Other opportunities exist for developers, cities and
states/provinces, who see FttH as an important infrastructure development and,
as such, are prepared to take the lead in FttH roll-outs.
Since 2004, governments have been laying fibre infrastructure to be ready when
it finally becomes cost effective to install the connections and 'light up'
the opitical fibre cables. Countries such as Iceland, Japan, Korea, Singapore
and Sweden have been most progressive - already installing extensive fibre
connections to neighbourhoods or homes. Japan and Korea are in the process of
a nationwide rollout of fibre optic cables. In Iceland, Lina.Net together with
Ericsson, has established a residential fibre network capable of delivering
speeds of up to 100Mb/s.
One of the most likely technologies that will bring us to the next generation
of broadband is the 1972 developed Ethernet system from Rank Xerox. This has
been further developed to facilitate the requirements of high-speed data, and
so-called Gigabit Ethernet will be the preferred network technology of the new
carriers that are emerging around the world. But we are not there yet. It will
bring network costs down by 60%, but deployment is capital intensive and
problems such as scalability still need to be sorted out. The real test
however, will be the correct timing and developing the right business models.
Telcos are still nervous about this.
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