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Ofcom publish report on shared duct access
Monday 24 May 2010 15:41:21 by John Hunt

Ofcom have released a report today written by Analysys Mason which looks into operational aspects of implementing a duct and pole sharing service. BT committed to opening its network of ducts used for telecommunications cables to rival operators earlier this year after the Conservative party pledged that they would force BT to do this, and BT have called for other operators to do the same. Ofcom have included the report as a contribution toward the Wholesale Line Access consultation which closes on the 1st June.

The detail of the report looks at case studies from duct sharing agreements used in France, Portugal, Spain and the US, and draws upon these to make recommendations of how the system should be implemented here in the UK.

[ Topic: Wholesale | 18 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by cyberdoyle about 1 year ago
74 pages... boils down to its gonna be very tricky for anyone to actually get access methinks. GameOn.

Posted by Somerset about 1 year ago
Yes, it's not the villagers stringing up some cables over the weekend.

Did anyone expect otherwise?

Posted by ElBobbo about 1 year ago
No, it's not the villagers stringing up some cables over the weekend.
They'd get decent connections (between themselves) and it'd be done in a day.
Bloody useless Ofcom.

Posted by Dixinormous about 1 year ago
Any of you guys read this thing before commenting?

It's not a simple subject, and much more complicated than putting a few bits of string down, loads of issues that need resolution.

Posted by CaptainHulaHoop about 1 year ago
also, most places with plenty of duct space are on the newer housing estates, where cable companies were not interested in supplying service to even though its a lot cheaper as the civils costs are not there. places out in the sticks are either overhead fed , or often on old burried cable estates

Posted by CaptainHulaHoop about 1 year ago
there may be space in fibre ducts, but they are mainly inter exchange links, private circuits, and backhaul network..neither of which are going to be of any use for getting fibre to customers.
areas that are getting fttc may have space in the fibre ducts, if llu operators want to provide their own cab and sub loop unbundle

Posted by CaptainHulaHoop about 1 year ago
but this again is not going to help areas that don't already have access to fttc.
using poles is not very viable, there is not much capacity left on them, fitting any major cables to them is likely to need the poles uprating, hich would likely cost the company that wanted to fit the service

Posted by CaptainHulaHoop about 1 year ago
as bt already said, they are all for it if people want it, but it is not going to provide much of a benefit to "the final third" of the country

Posted by jtthedevil about 1 year ago
Were Virgin not trialing Fibre via the poles recently?

Posted by Dixinormous about 1 year ago
Yes - though some regulations need to be changed before services can be deployed with new poles. People get quite upset about such things and whine about the effect on their view, property prices, etc, etc.

Posted by CaptainHulaHoop about 1 year ago
virgin trial with poles was putting up their own new poles, as dix said, people compalina bout these, there have aleardy been stories of people complaining about openreaches fttc cabs, a 10 mtr pole will attract more complaints.
also with sub loop unbundling, there is only so much space for fttc cabs so i cant see many different CP's doing this..

Posted by otester about 1 year ago
1) Remove the fibre tax.

2) Any infrastructure built pre-BT-privatisation become open access.

3) Allow BT full control over its own existing network.

4) Problem solved.

Posted by Somerset about 1 year ago
otester - what do you mean by open access?

Posted by Somerset about 1 year ago
Access will be for PECNs (Public Electronic Communication Network Providers).

Posted by otester about 1 year ago
@Someset

Some sort of sharing agreement, any provider can use it, maintenance is shared between operators.

Posted by Somerset about 1 year ago
Would not work. Someone has to own each element, have you read the report?

Unless you would like to explain in much more detail.

Posted by MarkHampshire about 1 year ago
How can it work when the operator owning and controlling the infrastructure/last mile, is also one of the service suppliers... it's that very conflict of interest which has knackered any progress for years.

Is now a good time to mention nationalising Openreach? :-)

Posted by Somerset about 1 year ago
MH - Is that real or imagined?

Now there is a proposal for duct sharing etc. people are realising it's not that easy. No telecoms company would let untrained, unqualified people anywhere near its equipment. So the idea that a group of local people would have access to some VM, BT or C&W ducts one weekend was never going to happen.

However it could help PECNs extend their network to unserved places.