Here are some examples of the reactions:
http://spedr.com/3b02g
http://spedr.com/2chsa
http://spedr.com/15euv
Now... some perspective please folks. Firstly these rankings are presented in terms of penetration - in other words the number of houses who have FTTH as a proportion of the total households in the country. A league table on this basis is very misleading - no disrespect to Andorra or Iceland but in real terms they have connected less households than in France, just more in percentage terms.
Next to the view that FTTH has somehow survived the economic downturn. Really? So why were so many projects put on hold in 2009? Why have none of the major European economies entered this league table? Where are the major FTTH projects - I mean the ones that will move us from <10% penetration to >25% penetration?
For the purposes of balance let's compare the 2008 results with 2009, taken from the FTTH Council's announcement:
Really all this shows is a couple of new projects in Andorra, Lithuania and Latvia and the others connecting a few more households to their existing networks. For me it highlights the problem throughout Europe that we are just not thinking progressively enough in our efforts to deliver Next Generation Access.
But now to my favorite post: http://spedr.com/4bnim from the Digital Britain team.
I'm not sure what the thought process was behind this post. "Show them we still care"? "We're bad but not as bad as they all think"? "Get your excuses in early before it gets worse"? Possibly all of the above!
I will agree on one point, however - I also dislike the 'Korea syndrome'. It is totally irrelevant to compare any European country to either South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore. Both Japan and Korea have built FTTB networks (to the Building) as most people live in cities in high-rise tower blocks and that was the easiest way to deliver any broadband service to them, regardless of speed. As a point of comparison read this annecdote from Benoit Felten (@fiberguy) on this subject: http://spedr.com/2mkg1 Their competitive landscape was built on providers trying to outdo each other on the headline speed which just resulted in a commoditisation of the network way earlier than it should have done. They are not in such a comfortable position either as they desperately try to recoup their investments.
But, it really is time to stop the excuses and start to put the momentum behind Digital Britain. I want to read about how & where projects are starting; how the DB team is enabling them; how we can apply for grants to support our efforts. Lame excuses are a waste of time for all concerned.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment