Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is both where we are and where the future is going. It’s an extremely interesting and exciting technology that’s constantly changing. To many, running fiber to the home may seem like the early days of running cable or even electricity to the home, but a closer look at this operation—and the people that make it happen—will change that perspective.

First and foremost, any contractor getting involved with FTTH must have a great amount of prior subdivision experience, as some of the challenges include:

• working with many different trades and dealing with other builders;
• being involved with the design of the electrical and communications network;
• ensuring the proper depths for all services and communicating with the other utilities (i.e. sharing rights-of-way in trenches); and
• dealing with the homeowner—the final customer.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that most of these tasks are generally unregulated across Canada, and each company has its own way of doing things; their rules, so to speak, that have served them well over the years.

The three markets

Most cities have three totally different marketing situations—each with its own challenges and opportunities. Good judgment will help access providers make the right business decision. Many Canadian cities and towns experience slow fiber growth, mainly because of the large amounts of copper they possess (which the telcos, rightly so, hate to abandon!). New cities with faster growth tend to put more fiber into their infrastructure, and so will move into FTTH more easily. In truth, there’s a terrific amount of rebuilding across every North American city, so replacing the copper infrastructure with fiber becomes more economical.

Rehabilitation or refurbishment

Rehabilitation or refurbishment of an existing network is generally carried out in established neighbourhoods where all the old copper simply cannot serve the consumers’ bandwidth needs. (The service provider will justify this work by reaping higher returns from higher-capacity lines. At the same time, this is the most effective way to prevent competitive overbuild by a competing carrier. The math is simple: when a provider’s competitor gains a customer, it means he’s lost one.)

Greenfield

Builds on greenfields, such as new subdivisions or business centres, are the easiest and cheapest installation with the highest subscription rate (‘greenfield’ refers to undeveloped land). Generally, underground duct is installed at a reasonable cost during construction, allowing for a much lower repair cost. In fact, many new products are designed just for this growing market, and forward-thinking developers are installing empty ducts during initial construction for future use.

Overbuild or competitive overbuild

Overbuild (or ‘competitive overbuild’, as it’s sometimes called) is a situation in which more than one service provider competes for the consumers’ dollar. The main problem lies beneath your feet; in older cities, the underground environment is simply a nightmarish cacophony of utilities sharing the same space. It’s costly to work around, especially if you mess up one of the other utilities.

Thankfully, new technologies like directional drilling and water boring are starting to cost a little less, making them viable options. To succeed, you need a ‘one-stop shop’, so to speak, which involves at least five different—but closely related—groups, each bringing its own expertise and skills to the project. The groups can include:

• The service provider that manages system design, programming and content, royalties, monthly customer fees, etc., and deals with the people financing the system.
• The civil group that installs the cable, either on poles or direct burial.
• The group splicing and connectorizing the cable and installing the network equipment in the Central Office (CO), and installing the terminals
  on the home, ensuring they are properly grounded with working uninterruptible power supplies. This group makes everything work. It checks bandwidth, system losses, back reflection, etc. Understanding how the network operates in each subdivision—how it connects and operates within the overall system, including each customer connection—is critical. The group that makes the connections does the inside work, performing any necessary in-premises changes.

All projects, of course, must start at the civil stage. This is the outside work that involves an application to the public utility commission (PUC) for approval. It might take weeks or months to secure all the required approvals. The contractor will then work with builders and coordinate the underground utilities and the design of the duct systems.

The group performing system testing must be accurate with its loss figures and ensure the connectors are clean, otherwise the video signal will be inadequate (and customer callbacks will erode any profit).

The last group—the one that makes things work in the home—has the greatest potential for profit, as the customer begins to understand the potential of fiber.

William Graham, CFOS/S/T/C, is an electrical contractor, certified fiber optic specialist and a director of the Fiber Optic Association (FOA). He operates Mississauga Training Consultants and is a member of Network & Cabling’s editorial advisory board. Visit William online at www.fiberoptictraining.com. 

Reprinted with full permission of Network & Cabling Magazine  www.networkcablingmag.ca