Tag: next-generatin broadband

Article – French language

La fibre optique se déploie en Côte d’Ivoire – DegroupNews.com

My Comments

Most of us would think that it’s a noble effort to help the “poor starving Africans” out, usually by working alongside a charity or church mission that works in various African countries providing health, education and welfare to these communities. This is although most of these communities work in an agricultural economy.

But in the Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), there are steps to distribute real next-generation broadband to this country using fibre-optic technology. The main drivers for this effort include education and telemedicine to the various communities.

The main infrastructure would be built around a 1400km fibre-optic backbone between San Pedro, Tabou, Man, Odienné, Korhogo and Ferkessedougou;  and another 549km backbone between Abidjan, Bondoukou and Bouna. There will be a network covering the Cote D’Ivoire which uses 6700km of fibre optic cabling and touching the various medical and educational precincts. It will achieve a 100Mbps bandwidth and support digital television and increased-capacity telephony for the telecommunications providers there.

This will be co-ordinated by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of that country, Bruno Koné as part of a nationwide “rural telecommunications project” known as the “Projet National de Téléphonie Rurale (PNTR)”.

Issues that can be raised is whether this could allow the creation of a data axis through Africa and whether efforts could be underway to provide competitive telecommunications through this continent. In some cases, this could allow Cote D’Ivoire to become more than an agricultural country by opening up research and commerce in to that area and neigbouring African countries. Of course, the real issue is to have the government work efforts to enrich the nation for all and yield prosperity and health using this technology.

Article

thinkbroadband :: FTTC Etherway, cheaper access to business grade broadband

My Comments

Most small businesses typically head for a consumer-based Internet-access setup which has a reduced upload rate. This can be a limitation for these businesses if they dabble with cloud-based computing, IP-based telephony or IP-based video-surveillance.

If they do want this improved upload speed, the business would have to go for an Ethernet-based service that uses the high-throughput Ethernet protocols. Such services are primarily offered as “Metro Ethernet” copper services or FTTP fibre-optic prices at a price that fewer small businesses can afford.

But BT Openreach are offering a wholesale fibre-copper service that provides Ethernet-type connectivity rather than DSL-type connectivity that is pitched at households. This is mainly for the Etherway fibre-copper setups pitched at small business and professional setups and provides the high reliability that would be expected for this kind of computing.

A question that I would have is whether the copper run is Ethernet-based DSL or Metro Ethernet which uses Category-5 twisted-pair copper cabling similar to that used in Ethernet LANs. It would encompass this ability as well as the cost-effectiveness of these fibre-copper next-generation broadband setups.

Articles – French language

France Télécom va tester le VDSL2 – DegroupNews.com

My comments

Most next-generation broadband deployments in France’s competitive Internet market are either FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) fibre but Numericable are running with what is called an “FTTLA” fibre-to-the-cabinet setup. This is where the copper run to the customers is a short-run coaxial cable similar to existing cable-modem setups and is based on DOCSIS 3.0 technology.

On the other hand. VDSL2 telephone-line-based technology is successfully used in Germany and the UK for the copper run in fibre-to-the-cabinet setups in those locations. Now France Telecom are intending to try it in the highly-competitive French market for cheaper fibre-copper next-generation setups. This will most likely be used as another method of covering sparsely-populated outer-urban or regional areas where the cost to deploy would be prohibitive for a full-fibre rollout.

The reason they are running with this technology is its ability to provide a “fat pipe” over telephone cable for short runs. For example, as I have seen from the article, an 800m run of telephone cable could yield a download link speed of 25Mb/s on ADSL2 technology, but could yield 100Mb/s for the same distance. Similarly a longer run which could typically achieve a link speed of 1Mbps under ADSL2 could achieve 42Mbps with VDSL2.

As I have already known, these rates are dependent on the line condition between the street cabinet or exchange and the customer’s premises. Of course, this would be delivered under sub-loop unbundling which would be part of the call for a competitive Internet market in France. Similarly, there would have to be competitive access to those street cabinets so that competing Internet providers like Free could run their fibre backbone to the newly-created VDSL2 infrastructure and reach these markets.

Personally, I would like to see any fibre-copper deployment scenarios involving rural properties like farms be looked at so that there is a proof of feasibility for bringing next-generation broadband to the farmhouse door in a reliable manner.

Articles

Ultrafast Broadband…It’s A Yes | Appleton With Eaton Parish Website

From the horse’s mouth

Gigaclear

Press Release

My Comments

After success with Hambleton in Rutland which has been previously covered on HomeNetworking01.info, Gigaclear are to set up and service two Oxfordshire villages with real next-generation broadband.

The neighbouring villages, Appleton & Eaton will be using a fibre-to-the-premises setup with buried fibre infrastructure which is to pass 400 homes and businesses in the community. At the time of writing, there were 120 subscribers committed to the service.

The service will yield 10Mbps switched bandwidth but provide access to shared bandwidth at 1000Mbps on a “burst” process. But this allows for a continuous path of improvement and a sense of future-proof design as these villages either become larger or take on a significant employer. The costs for this service would run at £37 per month, with a total startup cost of £185 (£100 connection fee + £85 installation), and the prices include VAT at the current rate.

The main access driver in these villages are the small businesses which operate from home and are driven by one or two people. One of these businesses that put Appleton on the map is White’s Of Appleton who hang the church bells in many of the churches in the UK. How I see this is a way of making it more cost-effective for these businesses to communicate across the country, Europe and the world, thus being able to nail more business or deal competitively.

The key organisations who are behind this include the Appleton Broadband Group and the Appleton & Eaton Parish Council, which is an example of local public money going behind a next-generation broadband effort. It was part of an 18-month improvement effort by the council to keep both the towns on track, along with keeping the local bus service alive and establishing a new children’s playground in these areas.

This is another example of a proactive effort taking place to make sure that small rural communities do have a chance at real broadband Internet, especially next-generation broadband in order to afford them what urban dwellers take for granted.

Article

thinkbroadband :: Openreach in technical trial to test micro-filters with FTTC service

My comments

Previously ADSL required a truck-roll to the customer’s premises to provide the service. Here, the technician installs a DSL line splitter at the line’s entry point and a socket for the ADSL modem. Now installs don’t need a technician to visit unless they are difficult or sophisticated setups like dealing with business phone systems or monitored security systems.

Typically, the customer installs a micro-filter or ADSL line splitter on each phone device and connects the ADSL modem-router to a socket that doesn’t have a micro-filter attached to it or connects the modem to the ADSL or DATA port of the line splitter. In most cases, we tend to use DSL line splitters rather than line filters at each phone socket. This can allow us to move the ADSL modem-router around as needed to suit different living arrangements or simply to relocate the wireless router for best performance.

Most fibre-copper next-generation broadband setups such as FTTC, FTTN or FTTB typically will implement VDSL2 but this is a different kettle of fish when it comes to provision. Here, a technician still visits the premises to put in a VDSL2 central splitter and run Ethernet-grade cable to where the VDSL2 modem-router would be installed.

BT Openreach are trialing the use of selected line filters and splitters as a way of providing self-installation of VDSL2-based fibre-copper setups. They are assessing these for radio and audio interference and degradation of data throughput with the commonly-used line filters attached to existing phone equipment.

Initially, the tests will be based around professionally-installed setups, but they will move towards self-install setups. It could also then give the same level of flexibility that we have enjoyed with ADSL2 equipment.

These tests could be observed by other countries and companies interesting in deploying fibre-copper next-generation broadband that uses VDSL2 technology; but can also be used as a way of justifying these setups over fibre-to-the-premises setups.

Article

FTTP on Demand for those who want it  | ThinkBroadband

My Comments

Some next-generation broadband services that are in existence use a fibre-copper setup like FTTC where there is a fibre-optic run to a street-side box and a short copper-cable run from the street-side box to the customer’s premises. In a multi-tenant building setup like a block of flats or a shopping centre, there may be a “fibre-to-the-building” setup where there is the copper-cable run within the development but a fibre-optic run to the development itself.

This method is being pushed as a cost-effective solution for providing next-generation broadband and has been intensified as part of the National Broadband Network debate by Tony Abbott and the Liberal-National-Party Coalition.

But BT Openreach are providing the fibre-to-the-premises technology as an extra-cost option on top of their fibre-to-the-cabinet setups in the UK. Typically the cost for providing this option would be significant and may be paid out over time.The kind of people who may initially purchase it would be larger businesses or “tech-head” computer enthusiasts who want as much bandwidth as they can.

On the other hand, most typical home and small-business users would use the fibre-to-the-cabinet setups. It is also worth noting that if a significant number of users covering a particular area choose this option, installation costs may be reduced when it comes to providing fibre-to-the-premises Internet service due to existing infrastructure.

An issue that is also forgotten about when considering “FTTP as an option” is the concept of an upgrade path. This is where a customer existing at the same premises who had a fibre-copper setup may decide to go “all-fibre” for the faster bandwidth; or a subsequent customer may move in to the same premises and go “all-fibre”. This could be supported through the use of same physical infrastructure (trenches / poles) for fibre / copper setups and a costing plan for upgrades.

The article talked of public money being used to finance next-generation broadband infrastructure and where private money should cover the cost. They were raising issues of whether public money should fund the link from the “digital hub” to the customer or whether private money should do this, and there may be a reluctance for private money to be used to provide FTTP or similar options for areas not considered profitable like rural areas or areas subjected to “redlining” based on the then-current community makeup.

The “FTTP as an option” could be seen as a compromise to please the “no-public-money” advocates when it comes to providing next-generation broadband. On the other hand, a properly thought-out universal-service obligation setup with a minimum bandwidth and a public-private funding pool could assist with making technologies like FTTP become affordable for most users. It should also support the ability to prevent “redlining” of areas when it comes to providing the next-generation broadband service.

Article

BT fibre rollout reaches Scotland, Wales • The Register

My Comments

British Telecom are now touching Scotland and Wales with their fibre-based next-generation-broadband services.

These will use a combination of fibre-to-the-cabinet and fibre-to-the-home deployment setups depending on the location. They wanted to have 34 exchanges in Scotland and 16 exchanges in Wales fibre-ready by 2012 with two thirds of UK premises passed by their fibre-optic network by 2014. This is part of their bid for the latest round of Broadband Delivery UK funding.

How I see it is that the upgrades are happening in the face of various local-focused rural-broadband-enrichment activity that is taking place through various parts of rural UK. In some cases, it could lead to the creation of competitive next-generation broadband like what is occurring in France where providers can compete on an infrastructure level.  It may then put BT “on notice” about the pricing and quality of their service as far as consumers and retail Internet providers are concerned due to the availability of this competing Internet infrastructure.

At least these kind of rollouts could then allow for vibrant competition in Internet service delivery in the UK.