Thursday, 13 August 2009
Why FTTC is a step in the right direction
If you have any interest in broadband in Britain you will know that BT have announced they will deliver FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) rather than FTTP (Fibre to the Premises which includes FTTH - Fibre to the Home). They will start this roll out in 98 exchanges around the UK in the major metropolitan areas (see here for a map of the locations). No details are available about future exchanges that will be enabled with this but it is a sure bet that it will only cover those areas with a high population density. The technology is essentially to run fibre from the exchange to the street cabinets and to upgrade these cabinets to offer VDSL (Very High Speed DSL) to the customer using the existing copper lines. In fact it is very similar to the topology used by Virgin Media to deliver their high speed services, although those are also only available in urban areas. So, what are your reactions to this? Are you happy that at least some of the country will be getting an improved broadband service (by improved I mean speed-wise, customer service is likely to be as bad as ever!)? Are you unhappy because you live in a rural area and will probably never benefit from BT's upgrades? If you live outside of these locations (or those covered by Virgin) let me tell you why you should be pissed off. You will have to pay a levy on your phone line of 50p per month to support broadband projects in the UK and at this time you are almost certainly not going to benefit from that. Paying tax is one thing because at least you get tangible benefits from it (schools, health care, police, fire etc. etc.) but paying a 'tax' and receiving no benefit is wrong. Now let me tell you why you should embrace FTTC and take advantage of the fund the levy will create. FTTC is a very useful interim step to the ultimate goal of FTTH - it will deliver much higher bandwidth (potentially 4 times although likely less as speed decreases the further you are from the cabinet) and at a fraction of the cost of FTTH. The implementation for FTTH is so costly to be almost prohibitive and the returns are over a long period of time (likely more than 15 years rather than the 3 to 5 that most investors will want to see) but FTTC can be implemented at a 1/3 to a 1/4 of the cost of FTTH while providing reusable infrastructure when the time is right to upgrade the ageing copper lines. FTTC can also be used in many rural or semi-rural areas (not all, of course but many can benefit from this). This has been proven by the work Rutland Telecom have done in Lymmington. These are also the kind of projects that the fund from the £6 levy has been set up to address and we are told by BIS (The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills who will administer the fund) that it will be available from early 2010. So if, like me, you are in a rural area that will never see the benefits of the upgrades BT are doing and will never know the speeds Virgin Media can offer, FTTC brings a very useful and cost effective way forward. There is also no reason it could not be combined with wireless technology to reach those ultra rural areas or notspots. By all means be critical of BT or Virgin Media but don't just sit and stew - there is a way forward you just need to get up & explore a little!
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FttC (Fibre to the Copper) is an apparent improvement that takes the heat away from the incumbent telcos by keeping their monopoly metallic path in the broadband formula.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a lost opportunity for any community to settle for anything less than FttH, Fibre to the Home, today.
The payback periods are far less that people imagine given the right business model that fosters community buy-in and delivers community ownership.
Fair comment, although payback is only a factor if the up front investment can be raised. FTTH is a much higher up front cost than FTTC (that's why BT is doing it after all) meaning investment will be much harder to get. FTTC will also offer quick pay back periods allowing the community to drive their own investment for their ultimate end goal of FTTH.
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