A number of factors have contributed to the decision by incumbent US telecommunications companies to invest billions of dollars in building out FttH networks across the nation. These factors include the removal of regulatory constraints, government support for broadband development, falling costs for fibre deployment, increasing high-bandwidth applications and services, the triple play convergence of voice video and Internet over broadband, increased competition from cable and emerging broadband access technologies, and a relatively low broadband penetration. Led by Verizon, the next ten years could see the USA catch up with FttH deployments in leading Asian nations.
Here, FttH is starting to emerge as a serious broadband platform. The technology has already taken off in a big way in Japan where there are close to 2 million FttH subscribers. Annual growth is running at about 50%. Not unexpectedly, the movement towards fibre has been occurring in Asia’s more developed markets. However, the adoption rate varied considerably from market to market. FttH has found itself having to compete with ‘hot-copper’ broadband services, which continue to find ways to exploit existing infrastructure to the maximum extent possible. The copper loop continues to extend its capability. Its reach has extended to the support of Ethernet and 50Mb/s Very High Data Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL). Fibre is certainly faster – between 155Mb/s and 1.25Gb/s – but few applications exist, for the time being at least, that warrant those kinds of speeds.
With little competition dynamics available in the Australian market there has not been a big push for fibre-based network. Ultimately these networks are going to replace the current copper-based and HFC-based telephone and cable TV networks. These upgrades will take 10-15 years to complete. The first large scale projects will be implemented between 2005 and 2008. This report analysis migration models and makes suggestions on how to move forward. The report also provides information on the latest projects that are moving into this direction. Bright in Perth was the first one to be announced, with Telstra announcing trials in new developments. However, the most exciting development is now taking place in Tasmania, where 1,000 premises will be linked to a FttH network.
AGENDA
09.30 – 10.00
Arrival, networking and coffee
10.00 – 10.15
Welcome, introduction of delegates
10.15 – 11.15
Overview of global developments
Paul Budde
.
11.15 – 11.45
Morning coffee
11.45 – 12.15
Tasmania’s FttH rollout from Tascolt – Jonathan Spring - CEOS
12.15 – 12.45
FttH considerations in Greenfield developments – Graham Bowman, GM, Broadcast Engineering Services (BES)
12.45 – 13.45
Light lunch
13.45 – 14.15
Killer app: video communication – Simon Curry, Manager - Asia Pacific Solutions Group, Intel Corporation
14.15 – 14.45
Fibre Optic cable & hardware - Enabling the FttH rollout – Paul Cross, Manager Fibre Products, Madison Technologies
14.45 – 15.00
Afternoon coffee
15.00 – 16.30
Roundtable discussion with delegates
16.30
Close – drinks in the bar
Outline of Presentations:
Jonathan Spring, CEOS Pty Ltd - Tasmanian Collaborative Optical Leading Testbed
tasCOLT is a fibre-to-the-premises deployment in Tasmania, Australia with a consortium including the Tasmanian Government, CEOS, Hitachi, Intel, Corning, Cisco, TECC and numerous other organisations. tasCOLT will develop a competitive communications market in Tasmania and will deliver voice, video and data services to businesses, homes, healthcare facilities and education institutions.
Graham Bowman, General Manager, Broadcast engineering Services (BES) - FttH in Greenfield developments
· Brief overview of BES structure
· Background of Network and Services Operations – incl. HFC to Fibre, and Engineering to Services transitions
· Primary considerations of network architecture / standards
· Building the network
· Services over the network
· Future outlook and considerations
Paul Cross, Manager Fibre Products, Madison technologies - Fibre Optic cable & hardware - Enabling the FttH rollout
· Where is bandwidth demand heading & why we need to get the outside plant right
· Topology options - benefits & features
· Triple play power budgets
· New fibre types available to reduce loss, increase bandwidth and decrease electronic costs
